REESE    LIBRARr 


itNJVERSJTY   OF   CALIFORNIA. 

_ 


'  A><  W  : 


S7  ' 

&  - 


y* 

V 


THE  GERMAN  ELEMENT 


IN  THE 


WAR  OF  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE 

^ffuf 

V^       OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

^LC<  r  TO:F  vi\Vy 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON  GREENE,  LL.  D. 

NON-RESIDENT     PROFESSOR    OF  AMERICAN   HISTORY    IN    CORNELL 

UNIVERSITY,    AUTHOR    OF    "  THE    LIFE    OF   MAJOR-GENERAL 

NATHANAEL    GREENE,"     "  HISTORICAL   VIEW  OF 

THE  AMERICAN   REVOLUTION,"    ETC.,    ETC. 


NEW   YORK 
PUBLISHED  BY  KURD  AND  HOUGHTON 

Cfte  Htoerstte 

1876 


Copyright,  1875, 
Hy  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  GREENE. 


RIVERSIDE,  CAMBRIDGE: 
PRINTED  11Y  II.  0.  IIOUGUTON  AND  COMPANY. 


To 
THE   HON.  WILLIAM   GREENE, 

OF    WARWICK,    R.    I. 

MY  DEAR  KINSMAN,  —  I  dedicate  this  vol 
ume  to  you,  in  order  to  have  the  opportunity  of 
publicly  reminding  you  that  one  so  profoundly 
versed  in  the  unwritten  history  of  his  country 
ought  not  to  withhold  his  treasures  from  his 
countrymen. 

Believe  me  ever 

Your  friend  and  kinsman, 

GEORGE  W.  GREENE. 


PEEFACE. 


THE  following  pages  make  no  pretension  to 
original  research.  They  are  founded  on  the  ad 
mirable  monographs  of  Doctor  Friedrich  Kapp, 
for  many  years  an  honored  member  of  the  New 
York  bar  and  now  an  active  member  of  the  Im 
perial  Assembly  of  his  native  Germany.  Dur 
ing  his  residence  in  the  United  States,  Doctor 
Kapp  made  special  studies  in  the  history  of  the 
Germans  in  America,  and  especially  of  those 
whose  names  have  passed  into  American  history. 
The  result  was  the  lives  of  Steuben  and  Kalb, 
and  the  history  of  those  unfortunate  men  whose 
blood  was  shed  to  gratify  the  avarice  of  their 
sovereign ;  one  of  the  darkest  chapters  in  the 
history  of  wicked  rulers.  From  these  sources  I 
have  drawn  freely  in  preparing  this  new  tribute 
to  the  history  of  my  country. 


vi  PREFACE. 

The  history  of  the  American  war  of  independ 
ence  has  not  yet  taken  the  place  which  belongs 
to  it  in  historical  literature.  Its  causes,  its  act- 
oo*s,  and  its  events  invest  it  with  an  interest  for 
ti  'statesman,  for  the  philosopher,  and  for  the 
lover  of  picturesque  narrative  which  has  never 
been  surpassed.  It  is  a  great  prose  epic,  with 
heroes  whom  we  can  love  and  revere,  whose  mar 
velous  truths  exceed  the  boldest  inventions  of 
fiction. 

In  the  first  decade  of  the  present  century  one 
of  the  most  attractive  saloons  of  Paris  was  the 
saloon  of  a  lady  whom,  out  of  reverence  for  the 
memory  of  her  father,  Italians  loved  to  call  Ma 
dame  Beccaria,  although  she  was  already  the 
mother  of  Alessandro  Manzoni.  The  conversa 
tion  of  authors  and  artists  —  for  it  was  chiefly  of 
these  that  the  assembly  was  composed  —  natu 
rally  turned  upon  literature ;  and  one  evening  the 
question  arose,  which  of  all  the  events  of  modern 
history  was  best  adapted  to  epic  poetry.  The 
discussion  was  long  and  animated,  the  French. 
Revolution  and  the  Thirty  Years'  War  finding 
eloquent  advocates.  At  last,  after  weighing  the 
matter  deliberately  and  looking  at  it  from  every 


PREFACE  vii 

point  of  view,  it  was  unanimously  decided  that 
the  American  war  of  independence  was  the  fit 
test  of  all.  In  that  group  of  eminent  men  and 
women  was  Carlo  Botta,  a  young  Canavese,  •!- 
ready  tried  by  persecution  in  his  own  Italy,  i  ..d 
an  eloquent  defender  of  the  purity  of  his  na 
tive  tongue.  Following  up  the  train  of  thought 
which  the  evening's  conversation  had  awakened, 
he  took  his  way  homeward  through  that  square 
so  deeply  stained  with  the  blood  of  the  victims 
of  the  Reign  of  Terror,  and,  as  he  paused  on  the 
spot  where  the  guillotine  had  stood,  said  to  him 
self:— 

"  If  it  be  a  good  subject  for  an  epic  poem, 
why  not  for  a  history  ?  It  is,  and  I  will  write 
it," 

The  very  next  morning  he  began  his  studies, 
and  in  1809  gave  his  great  classic  to  the  world. 

Shall  I  complete  the  story  ? 

The  publishers  of  Italy  republished  it  to  their 
great  emolument,  while  the  author,  unrecognized 
by  those  laws  which  recognize  every  other  prod 
uct  of  labor  as  the  property  of  the  producer, 
was  compelled  to  sell  the  last  six  hundred  copies 


viii  PREFACE. 

of  his  own  edition  to  a  druggist,  at  the  price  of 
waste  paper,  in  order  to  purchase  for  his  wife  the 
privilege  of  dying  in  her  native  land. 

GEORGE  W.  GREENE. 

WINDMILL  COTTAGE,  EAST  GREENWICH,  R.  I. 
October,  1875. 


CONTENTS. 


BARON  VON  STEUBEN 11 

GENERAL  JOHN  KALB 89 

GERMAN  MERCENARIES  .  1G9 


BABOU  VON  STEUBEN. 


O  mostri  almen  cli'alla  virtu  latina, 
0  nulla  manca  o  sol  la  disciplina. 

Or  show  at  least  that  to  Latin  virtue,  or  nothing  is  wanting 
or  discipline  alone. 

•    TASSO,  Ger.  Lib. 


BAKON  YON  STEUBEN. 


THE  name  which,  passing  through  the  varia 
tions  of  Stoebe,  Steube,  and  Stoeben,  finally  took 
its  place  in  modern  history  under  the  form  of  Von 
Steuben,  first  appears  in  the  thirteenth  century  in 
the  list  of  noblemen  who  held  feudal  manors  and 
estates  as  vassals  of  Mansfield  and  Magdeburg. 
Like  the  other  nobles  of  the  part  of  Germany  to> 
which  they  belonged,  they  became  Protestants 
from  the  beginning  of  the  Reformation,  and  like 
the  rest  of  the  minor  nobility  grew  poor  by  the 
changes  introduced  into  the  system  of  warfare, 
while  the  territorial  princes  grew  rich  by  the 
confiscation  of  church  property.  During  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  the  branch  from  which  the 
general  descended  was  separated  from,  the  parent 
stock,  and  won  distinction  through  its  successive 
generations  by  the  pen  and  the  sword.  One 
among  them,  his  grandfather,  an  eminent  theo 
logian,  was  known  by  an  "  able  commentary  on 
the  New  Testament  and  the  Apocalypse."  An 
other,  his  father's  elder  brother,  was  distinguished 


14  STEUBEN. 

as  a  mathematician,  a  writer  upon  military  sci 
ence,  and  the  inventor  of  a  new  system  of  forti 
fication.  His  father,  Wilhelm  Augustine,  was 
.educated  at  Halle  with  his  two  elder  brothers, 
.entered  the  military  service  of  Prussia  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  was  married  at  thirty-one,  when  a  cap 
tain  of  engineers,  and,  after  having  served  with 
distinction  in  the  great  wars  of  the  century  and 
filled  positions  of  confidence,  and  trust  under 
Frederick  the  Great,  died  in  honorable  poverty  at 
the  age  of  eighty-four,  on  the  26th  of  April,  1783. 
Of  his  ten  children,  only  three,  two  sons  and  a 
daughter,  lived  to  grow  up  ;  and  of  these  the  sub 
ject  of  our  history,  Frederick  William  Augustus 
Henry  Ferdinand,  was  the  eldest.  At  the  time 
of  his  birth,  November  15,  1730,  his  father  was 
stationed  at  the  fortress  of  Magdeburg  on  the 
Elbe,  and  while  he  was  yet  a  child  he  followed 
him,  as  the  duties  of  service  called  him,  to  Cron- 
stadt  and  the  Crimea.  When  the  father  returned 
to  Prussia,  the  son  was  barely  ten  years  old. 
Thus  all  the  associations  of  his  infancy  and  child 
hood  were  military :  guns,  drums,  trumpets,  for- 
ifications,  drills,  and  parades.  Before  he  was 
fully  turned  of  fourteen  another  chapter  was 
added  to  his  rude  experience :  he  served  under 
his  father  as  a  volunteer  in  the  campaign  of  1744, 
and  shared  the  perils  and  hardships  of  the  long 
and  bloody  siege  of  Prague. 


STEUBEN.  15 

Fortunately  his  father,  who  had  received  a 
good  education  himself,  felt  the  importance  of 
giving  the  best  that  he  could  command  to  his 
son.  And  fortunately,  too,  the  Jesuits'  colleges 
of  Neisse  and  Breslau  afforded  the  means  of 
thorough  elementary  instruction.  Here  young 
Steuben  laid  the  foundations  of  a  superior  knowl 
edge  of  mathematics  and  acquired  a  tincture  of 
history  and  polite  literature.  And  here  also  he 
formed  an  idea  of  the  importance  of  intellectual 
ulture,  which  led  him,  when  first  called  into 
active  life,  to  turn  to  account  every  opportunity 
of  adding  to  his  store. 

About  his  profession  there  could  be  no  doubt, 
even  if  all  his  early  impressions  had  not  filled 
him  with  aspirations  for  military  glory,  there 
could  have  been  no  question  about  the  surest  road 
to  distinction  under  Frederick  the  Great.  At  sev 
enteen  he  entered  the  army  as  a  cadet.  In  two 
years  he  became  an  ensign  ;  in  four  more,  a  lieu 
tenant,  and  first  lieutenant  just  a  year  before  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  Of  this 
period  two  letters  are  the  only  words  of  his  own 
that  have  been  preserved,  and  those  words  are 
in  bad  French.  But  the  thoughts  are  those  of  an 
ardent  young  man  who  knew  his  profession  and 
loved  it,  and  asked  nothing  from  fortune  but  a 
chance  to  distinguish  himself.  "  Yes,  my  dear 
Henry,  if  there  is  a  war,  I  promise  you  at  the 


16  STEUBEN. 

end  of  a  second  campaign  that  your  friend  will  be 
either  in  Hades  or  at  the  head  of  a  regiment." 

And  soon  the  war  came,  the  great  Seven 
Years'  War ;  not  indeed  a  war  of  principles  and 
ideas,  a  political  war  merely,  yet  in  military  sci 
ence  the  connecting  link  between  the  great  wars 
of  Eugene  and  Maryborough  and  the  develop 
ment  of  strategy  by  Napoleon.  Steuben's  part  in 
this  war  was  neither  a  prominent  nor  a  brilliant 
one.  The  first  campaign  found  him  a  first  lieu 
tenant;  the  last  left  him  a  major  and  in  tempo 
rary  command  of  a  regiment.  He  was  wounded 
at  the  battle  of  Prague  in  May,  1757,  and  shared 
the  triumph  of  Rossbach  in  November,  1757.  The 
next  year  gave  him  a  wider  field.  The  brilliant, 
dashing,  dare-devil  hero  of  this  war  was  the  Gen 
eral  von  Mayr,  an  uneducated,  self-made  soldier, 
the  illegitimate  son  of  a  nobleman,  one  of  those 
men  whom  war  raises  to  rank  and  fortune,  and 
peace  sends  to  the  jail  or  the  gallows.  Forced 
into  the  army  by  necessity  he  had  resolutely 
made  his  way  to  a  command,  fighting  with  equal 
desperation  under  different  banners,  and  entering 
at  last  the  Prussian  service  in  season  to  take  an 
important  part  in  the  Seven  Years'  War.  Fred 
erick,  who  wanted  just  such  a  man  to  oppose  to  the 
leaders  of  the  enemy's  Croats  and  Pandours,  put 
him  at  the  head  of  a  free  corps,  where  his  daunt 
less  courage  and  enterprising  genius  had  full  play. 


STEUBEN.  17 

Steuben  became  his  adjutant-general  and  followed 
him  through  his  brilliant  campaign  of  1758.  At 
the  beginning  of  1759,  death,  which  had  so  often 
passed  the  bold  adventurer  by  in  the  field,  came 
to  him  in  his  tent ;  and  then  Steuben  returned  to 
his  regiment,  with  a  knowledge  of  the  manage 
ment  of  light  infantry  and  a  habit  of  cool  and 
prompt  decision  in  the  tumult  of  battle  which  he 
could  hardly  have  learned  so  soon  or  so  well  in 
any  other  school. 

He  was  soon  appointed  adjutant  to  General 
von  Hiilsen,  fought  under  him  in  the  unsuccess 
ful  battle  of  Kay,  in  July,  was  wounded  in  the 
murderous  battle  of  Kunersdorf,  where  Frederick 
commanded  in  person,  and  having,  somewhat  like 
M£las  at  Marengo,  won  a  victory  and  prepared 
his  bulletins,  was  defeated  with  terrible  slaughter 
on  the  same  day  and  by  the  same  enemy.  Then 
for  two  years,  from  August,  1759,  to  September, 
1761,  we  lose  sight  of  him.  But  that  he  passed 
them  in  good  service  is  evident  from  his  reap 
pearance  as  aid  to  General  Knoblauch  when 
Platen  made  his  brilliant  march  into  Poland 
against  the  Prussian  rear.  And  here  for  a  mo 
ment  the  names  of  father  and  son  appear  together, 
for  the  elder  Steuben,  as  major  of  engineers,  built 
the  bridge  over  the  Wartha,  which  the  younger 
Steuben  crossed  ;  too  swiftly  perhaps  to  clasp  his 
father's  hand  or  do  more  than  exchange  a  hur- 


18  STEUBEN. 

ried  glance  of  recognition  as  the  headlong  torrent 
of  war  swept  him  onward.  Some  skillful  march 
ing  came  next,  with  overwhelming  odds  to  make 
head  against,  and  the  scene  closes  for  a  time  with 
a  blockade  and  a  capitulation :  a  blockade  in  an 
open  town  desperately  defended  till  ammunition 
and  provisions  failed  and  half  the  town  was  on  fire, 
and  an  honorable  capitulation  with  flying  colors 
and  beating  drums  and  all  the  honors  of  war. 

In  this  surrender  Steuben  was  the  negotiator, 
and  by  its  terms  he  followed   his   general   and 
brother  officers  to  St.  Petersburg  as  prisoner  of 
war.     But  the  imprisonment  was  a  pleasant  one, 
for  the  Grand   Duke  Peter,  a  warm  admirer  of 
Frederick,  took  him  into  special  favor  ;    and  it 
proved,  in, the  end,  a  surer  path-  to  promotion 
than    active   participation    in  a  victory,  for   he 
did  his  king  such  good  service  with  the  grand 
duke  that  on  his  return  to  Prussia  he  was  made 
captain,  and  raised  from  the  staff  of  a  subordinate 
general  to  that  of  the  great  commander  himself. 
And  here  his  military  education  received  its  high 
est  finish  ;  for  besides  what  he  learnt  in  the  daily 
performance  of  his  duty  under  the  king's  own  eye, 
he  was  admitted  to  the  lessons  upon  the  higher 
principles  of  the  art  of  war  which  Frederick  him 
self  gave  to  a  limited  number  of  young  officers, 
whom  he  had  selected,  not  for  birth  or  fortune, 
but  for  talent  and  zeal.     And  thus  it  was  as  aid 


STEUBEN.  19 

to  the  king  that  he  took  part  in  the  siege  of 
Schweidnitz,  and  saw  the  curtain  fall  upon  the 
checkered  scenes  of  this  long  and  bloody  war. 
The  king,  well  pleased  with  his  services,  bestowed 
upon  him  a  lay  benefice  with  an  income  of  four 
hundred  thalers. 

Peace  came,  and  with  it  an  unsparing  reduction 
of  the  army.  "  Lieutenant  Bliicher  may  go  to 
the  devil  "  was  the  expressive  phrase  with  which 
the  future  marshal  was  sent  back  to  private  life  ; 
and  among  the  reasons  assigned  for  Steuben's 
withdrawal  from  the  army  is  dissatisfaction  with 
the  new  position  assigned  him  in  it.  However 
this  may  be,  we  find  him,  soon  after  the  peace  of 
Hubertsburg,  traveling  for  amusement,  staying  a 
short  time  at  Halle  and  Dessau,  then  going  to 
Hamburg,  where  he  made  an  acquaintance  that 
was  to  exercise  a  decisive  influence  upon  his 
future  career  at  a  decisive  moment,  the  acquaint 
ance  of  the  Count  St.  Germain ;  and  last  to  the 
baths  of  Wildbad  in  Suabia,  where  he  was  pre 
sented  to  the  Prince  of  Hohenzollern  Hechingen, 
and,  through  the  influence  of  the  Princess  of  Wiir- 
temberg  and  Prince  Henry  of  Prussia,  received 
the  appointment  of  grand  marshal  of  his  court. 
An  honorable  appointment,  indeed,  but  dull 
work,  one  would  think,  for  a  soldier  in  the  flower 
of  his  age.  From  infancy,  with  one  brief  excep 
tion,  Steuben  had  known  no  life  but  that  of  for- 


20  STEUBEN. 

tress  and  camp  ;  had  been  accustomed  to  be  up 
before  day  and  measure  his  time  by  drum-beat  and 
trumpet.  He  had  been  constantly  moving  to  and 
fro  with  his  life  in  his  hand,  subject  to  the  chances 
of  a  hair's-breadth  more  or  a  hair's-breadth  less, 
in  the  line  of  a  musket-bullet  or  cannon-ball. 
He  had  often  seen  men  whom  he  had  messed 
with  in  the  morning  lying  around  him  at  night 
wounded,  or  dying,  or  dead.  And  now  he  was  to 
lay  him  down  calmly  under  a  gilded  canopy, 
sleep  softly  on  down,  and  let  the  summer  and 
winter  sun  outstrip  him  in  their  rising.  His 
companions  were  to  be  men  who  spoke  in  whis 
pers,  and  bowed  long  and  low ;  his  duties,  the 
ushering  in  and  out  the  presence  chamber  those 
of  higher  rank,  and  seeing  that  those  of  lower 
rank  were  duly  attended,  each  in  his  degree ; 
stifling  intrigues,  allaying  discontents,  composing 
discords ;  watching  over  the  details  of  a  great 
household  —  for  a  court  is  nothing  more  —  and 
giving  them  an  air  of  dignity  by  personal  gravity 
and  official  decorum. 

Steuben's  character  was  passing  into  a  new 
phase,  revealing,  as  such  transitions  always  do, 
qualities  hitherto  unknown  to  their  possessor  or 
those  who  knew  him  best.  He  had  had  little 
time  for  the  dreams  of  youth.  Life  for  him  had 
been  full  of  stern  realities.  His  only  ambition, 
the  thirst  of  military  glory,  had  been  imperfectly 


STEUBEN.  21 

gratified.  He  had  not  won  a  regiment  in  two 
years,  as  he  had  promised  his  friend  Henry  that 
he  would,  but  neither  had  he  gone  to  Hades  ; 
and  to  have  been  an  aid  and  a  chosen  pupil  of 
Frederick  was  something  to  dwell  upon  with  satis 
faction,  even  though  it  left  him  with  but  four  hun 
dred  thaler s  over  his  captain's  pay.  How  small 
the  prospects  of  advancement  in  peace  time  were, 
his  father's  example  showed  him :  a  veteran  of 
forty-seven  years'  service,  without  a  blot  on  his 
escutcheon,  and  still  only  a  major  of  engineers. 
And  meditating  upon  these  things  he  could  lay 
down  his  sword  without  regret ;  and  bid  farewell 
to  all  the  habits  and  associations  of  all  his  life. 

But  why,  in  place  of  that  keen,  stout  sword, 
with  its  plain  leather  scabbard  and  plain  brass 
guard  familiar  to  a  soldier's  hand,  take  up  the 
flimsy  blade  fit  only  to  rest  idly  on  a  courtier's 
thigh  or  be  crossed  with  some  other  flimsy  blade 
in  a  courtier's  quarrel  ?  Rest,  rest,  rest  —  Steuben 
was  weary  and  wanted  rest.  Far  down  in  the 
depths  of  his  nature,  but  overlaid  hitherto  and 
hidden  by  the  necessities  of  his  position,  lay  a 
love  of  ease,  a  longing  for  social  life  and  the 
pleasures  of  refined  intercourse.  But  that  ease,  to 
satisfy  the  old  soldier's  ideas  of  form  and  hierarchic 
subordination,  must  be  accompanied  by  dignity; 
that  repose,  to  satisfy  the  old  soldier's  habits  of 
daily  occupation,  must  wear  a  semblance  of  ac- 


22  STEUBEN. 

tivity.  And  where  were  these  to  be  found  in  such 
happy  combination  as  in  the  cyclic  frivolities  of  a 
petty  German  court,  wherein  the  daily  trifles  of 
life  were  performed  with  all  the  pompous  cere 
monial  of  a  great  empire  ? 

And  thus,  too,  we  find  the  measure  of  Steuben's 
political  sentiments  at  this  pausing  point  in  his  ca 
reer.  Frederick  had  burnt  his  "  Antimachiavel  " 
years  before,  and  reigned  like  a  voluntary  dis 
ciple  of  the  eighteenth  chapter  of  the  "  Prince." 
To  the  common  eye  thrones  were  never  firmer. 
The  "  Contrat  Social  "  had  but  just  come  forth 
from  the  fervid  brain  of  Jean  Jacques.  The  "  Let- 
tres  Persanes  "  and  "  Esprit  des  Loix  "  were  doing 
their  work  surely  but  in  apparent  silence.  Few 
shared  the  Cardinal  Fleury's  dread  of  an  approach 
ing  end  of  the  world.1  But  Frederick,  who  pro 
tected  the  French  Raynal  and  frowned  on  his  own 
Germans  when  they  ventured  to  treat  profoundly 
some  of  the  subjects  of  the  superficial  abbe's  dec 
lamations,  was  not  the  man  to  encourage  the  study 
of  Rousseau  or  Montesquieu  in  his  camp,  and  the 
camp  had  been  Steuben's  world.  Personally  in 
dependent  and  possessing  an  almost  exaggerated 

1  Unless  Cowper's  — 

"  World  that  seems 

To  toll  the  death-bell  of  its  own  decree, 
And  by  the  voice  of  all  its  elements 
To  preach  the  general  doom," 
is  to  be  classed  with  Fleury's  prognostics. 


STEUBEN.  23 

sense  of  dignity,  he  was  still  accustomed  to  call 
a  king  his  master  and  look  upon  the  distinctions 
of  rank  in  civil  life  as  he  looked  upon  them  in 
military  life.  The  rights  of  the  people,  the  duties 
of  rulers,  the  true  sources  of  authority,  were  ques 
tions  that  he  had  not  yet  found  leisure  to  discuss, 
and  when  the  leisure  came,  there  was  nothing  in 
his  surroundings  to  invite  the  discussion.  As 
grand  marshal  of  the  court  of  a  German  prince 
he  found  little  in  his  new  surroundings  to  enlarge 
the  conceptions  of  the  rights  of  humanity  which 
he  had  formed  in  the  army  of  a  German  king. 

In  the  busy  idleness  of  the  petty  court  Steuben 
passed  nearly  ten  years ;  acceptable  to  the  prince 
for  his  intelligent  zeal  and  strict  performance 
of  his  duty,  acceptable  to  courtiers  for  the  digni 
fied  amenity  of  his  manners  and  the  justice  of  his 
dealings.  He  had  leisure  for  reading,  of  which 
he  had  once  been  fond,  and  for  society,  in  which 
he  was  well  fitted  to  shine.  The  prince  loved 
traveling,  and  Steuben  traveled  with  him  when 
ever  he  went  to  other  courts  of  Germany,  and, 
welcomest  duty  of  all,  to  Paris,  where  his  rank 
opened  for  him  the  doors  of  the  most  celebrated 
saloons  and  procured  him  the  acquaintance  of  the 
men  he  most  desired  to  know.  So  contented  was 
he  with  this  mode  of  life  that  he  purchased  a  small 
country-seat  by  the  name  of  Weilheim  ;  and  thus, 
but  for  that 1  "  vice  of  courts  "  which  has  ever 
1  Inf.  xiii.  62  :  "  Morte  comune  e  delle  corti  vizio." 


24  STEUBEN. 

reigned  in  them  supreme,  he  might  have  floated 
pleasantly  on  the  easy  tide  to  the  French  Revolu 
tion,  and  drawn  his  sword  once  more  with  com 
rades  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  under  the  banners 
of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick. 

But  Steuben  was  a  Protestant,  the  descendant 
of  Protestants  from  Luther's  day  downwards  ; 
the  court  was  Roman  Catholic,  and  with  priests 
about  it  who  found  it  hard  that  a  heretic  should 
stand  so  high  and  live  so  intimately  with  their 
sovereign.  How  they  intrigued  against  him,  and 
how  cunningly  they  strove  to  sow  dissensions 
betwixt  the  prince  and  his  grand  marshal,  we 
can  readily  conceive,  although  the  story  has  not 
come  down  to  us  in  all  its  details.  But  Steuben, 
well  knowing  that  whatever  the  immediate  result 
of  the  actual  contest  might  be,  there  could  be  no 
return  to  the  tranquillity  which  had  formed  the 
chief  charm  of  his  position,  discreetly  bowed  to  the 
blast  and  resigned  ;  carrying  with  him  into  private 
life  the  esteem  of  the  prince  and  the  friendship 
of  many  eminent  men  whose  friendship  he  had 
won  under  the  prince's  auspices. 

Once  more  a  free  man,  he  seems  to  have  expe 
rienced  some  return  of  military  ambition.  For  a 
moment  there  was  a  prospect  of  war,  and  could 
he  have  obtained  without  much  effort  the  rank 
he  felt  himself  entitled  to,  he  would  have  entered 
the  service  of  the  emperor.  But  his  heart  was 


STEUBEN.  25 

so  little  in  the  change  that  he  neglected  even  to 
present  himself  to  Joseph,  as  his  friend  the  Prince 
de  Ligne  and  General  Ried  had  urged  him  to 
do,  and  the  negotiations  which  he  had  indolently 
begun  were  suffered  to  fall  through.  In  1769  the 
Margrave  of  Baden  had  conferred  upon  him  the 
cross  of  the  order  of  "  la  Fid  elite  ;  "  and  now,  on 
resigning  his  grand  marshalship,  he  first  turned 
his  steps  towards  Carlsruhe,  the  seat  of  the  mar 
grave's  court.  Even  quieter  than  that  of  Hech- 
ingen  was  the  life  that  he  led  here.  Absolute 
master  of  his  time  and  of  a  competent  income, 
he  could  go  whither  he  would,  still  sure  of  meet 
ing  or  making  friends  wherever  he  went.  A  visit 
to  the  country-seat  of  the  Baron  von  Waldener,  in 
Alsace,  brought  him  once  more  into  contact  with 
the  Count  St.  Germain  ;  and  in  the  winter  of 
1776,  while  Washington  was  struggling  through 
the  Jerseys  and  striking  his  daring  blow  at  the 
German  mercenaries  in  Trenton,  Steuben  was 
making  at  Montpellier  the  acquaintance  of  the 
Earl  Warwick  and  Earl  Spencer.  So  intimate 
did  they  become  that  he  resolved  to  extend  his 
circle  of  travel  and  make  them  a  visit  in  England. 
Paris  lay  in  his  way,  and  as  the  Count  St. 
Germain  had  recently  been  made  minister  of  war, 
he  could  not  resist  the  temptation  of  passing  a  few 
days  there  and  congratulating  him  on  his  ad 
vancement.  It  wa&  early  in  May,  1777.  Frank- 


26  STEUBEN. 

lin  had  already  taken  up  his  residence  at  Passy, 
and  was  drawing  young  and  old  around  him. 
Silas  Deane  had  been  in  France  almost  a  year. 
Arthur  Lee  was  there  too,  busy,  active,  jealous, 
suspicious.  Beaumarchais  was  gliding  to  and 
fro,  as  adroit,  keen-eyed,  and  subtle  as  his  own 
Figaro.  Paris  was  unconsciously  vibrating  to 
the  touch  of  the  lightning-tamer,  and  preparing  to 
hail  him  as  the  breaker  of  misused  sceptres. 

But  it  was  not  of  this  that  Steuben  was 
thinking  as  lie  reentered  Paris  on  the  2d  of  May, 
but  of  the  new  war  minister  with  whom  he 
had  talked  of  Prussian  tactics  at  Hamburg  and 
in  Alsatia,  and  of  the  gay  saloons  he  had  been 
so  much  at  home  in  when  he  visited  them  with 
the  Prince  of  Hechingen.  He  would  just  glance 
at  them  now,  just  go  out  to  Versailles  and  tell 
the  count  how  glad  he  was  to  see  him  in  the 
right  place,  and  then  cross  over  into  England 
and  see  what  kind  of  a  life  English  noblemen  led 
in  their  own  castles.  And  as  soon  as  he  had  made 
himself  comfortable  at  his  hotel,  he  wrote  to  tell 
the  count  of  his  arrival  and  that  he  should  wait 
upon  him  at  an  early  day. 

"  Do  not  come  to  Versailles,"  was  the  answer. 
"  In  three  days  I  will  see  you  at  the  arsenal  and 
will  send  an  officer  to  conduct  you  thither.  We 
have  important  questions  to  discuss  together." 
And  still  pondering  on  this  sphinx-like  reply,  he 


STEUBEN.  27 

saw  the  three  days  pass  by  and  the  officer  come, 
and  found  himself  once  more  in  the  presence  of 
his  friend. 

Then  for  the  first  time,  perhaps,  certainly  for 
the  first  time  with  any  approach  to  personal  in 
terest,  he  heard  the  story  of  the  revolted  colonies, 
of  their  perils  and  their  resources,  of  the  sympa 
thy  which  France  and  Spain  felt  for  them,  and  of 
the  danger  that  with  all  their  courage  and  reso 
lution,  with  all  the  secret  aid  of  their  European 
friends,  they  might  still  fail  for  want  of  a  man 
like  him  to  organize  and  discipline  their  citizen 
soldiers.  Here  was  glory,  here  was  fortune,  here 
was  a  field  (and  St.  Germain  laid  his  hand  upon 
the  map  of  America  as  he  spoke),  such  as  no 
European  war  could  afford,  for  applying  the  les 
sons  of  his  great-  master  and  demonstrating  the 
superiority  of  the  system  which  they  both  be 
lieved  in  so  firmly. 

Steuben  was  taken  by  surprise.  In  all  his 
guesses  at  the  meaning  of  St.  Germain's  letter,  he 
had  never  thought  of  this.  At  first  the  difficul 
ties  and  objections  rose  before  him  in  formidable 
array.  St.  Germain  answered  him  at  length, 
trying  to  meet  them  all.  "  What  would  you  ad 
vise  me,  not  as  a  minister  but  as  a  friend  ?  " 
"  Sir,  as  a  minister  I  have  no  advice  to  give  you 
on  these  subjects  ;  but  as  your  friend  I  would 
never  advise  you  to  do  anything  which  I  would 


28  STEUBEN 

not  do  myself  were  I  not  employed  in  the  king's 
service." 

Thus  ended  the  first  interview,  and  Steuben 
went  thoughtfully  down  the  old  stairway  which 
Sully  and  France's  best  king  but  one  had  often 
trod  together,  when  the  America  that  he  had 
been  asked  to  go  and  fight  for  was  a  wilderness. 
Next  day  they  met  again.  Twenty-four  hours' 
reflection  had  removed  some  doubts,  awakened 
some  hopes.  It  was  but  a  distant  sound  of  the 
trumpet,  but  the  old  spirit  —  the  spirit  formed  in 
infancy,  cherished  through  boyhood,  and  accepted 
in  manhood  as  the  chief  spring  of  action  —  was 
stirred  again.  It  may  be,  too,  that  a  still  deeper 
cord  had  been  touched,  and  that  he  felt  it  would 
be  a  generous  as  well  as  a  glorious  thing  to  fight 
on  the  side  of  a  republic  contending  for  her  lib 
erty.  But  liberty  was  a  word  not  yet  familiar  to 
his  lips.  Glory  had  its  meaning  and  rank  its 
value.  Could  he  be  sure  of  winning  them  ? 

With  many  warnings  to  be  cautious,  to  keep 
away  from  Versailles  and  not  allow  himself  to  be 
too  freely  seen  in  Paris,  St.  Germain  gave  him  a 
letter  to  Beaumarchais  ;  Beaumarchais  introduced 
him  to  Deane;  Deane  took  him  to  Franklin. 
Thus  they  stood  face  to  face,  the  philosopher-di 
plomatist  with  his  Quaker-cut  drab,  and  the  sol 
dier-courtier  with  the  glittering  star  of  the  order  of 
"  Fiddlitd  "  on  his  breast ;  the  eye  that  had  been 


STEUBEN.  29 

<£ 


*^  , 


^j>^      '*'»        >•     /v 

trained   to  look   closely  into  the  phenomena  of 
nature,  and  read  the  workings  of  the  heart  in  the- 
play  of  the  features,  looking  straight  into  the  eye 
that  had  been  trained  to  look  into  the  cannon's 
mouth  and  detect  the  signs  of  success  or  disaster 
in  the  wild  tumult  of  battle.      "  This  is  no  en 
thusiast,"  Franklin  must  have  said  to  himself  as 
he  scanned  the  sun-embrowned  face,  the  strong 
features,  the   well-rounded  forehead,  the  bushy 
eyebrows,  uplifted  as  if  the  clear  orbs  they  shaded 
were  ever  on  the  watch,  the  large  nose  not  wholly 
Roman  but  very  near  it,  the  full  lower  lip  sug 
gestive  of  good  cheer  fully  appreciated,  and  the 
projecting  chin,  all  borne  with  the  upright  pre 
cision  of  a  man  who  had  worn  a  uniform  from  his 
childhood.    "  No  young  Marquis  de  Lafayette  this, 
fresh  from  the  schools,  with  romantic  dreams  of 
liberty  and  human  virtue.     Here  is   a  sword  to 
sell,    perhaps    something    more ;    but   what   are 
swords  good  for  but  to  cut  men  to  pieces  ?  and  it 
is  rather  hard  that  I,  who  have  passed  over  fifty 
of  my  seventy-one  years  in  trying  to  teach  men 
how  to  take  care  of  themselves  and  convince  them 
that  they  are  never  so  happy  as  when  they  live 
like  brothers  —  I,  who  have  often  said  that  I  never 
knew  a  bad  peace  or  a  good  war,  should  in  my  old 
age  become  a  sharpener  of  swords  and  swords 
men."    "  A  strange  way  this,  of  persuading  men 
to  come  and  shed  their  blood  for  you,"  thought 


30  STEUBEN. 

Steuben  as  he  listened  incredulously  to  the  sug 
gestion  of  some  grant  of  a  couple  of  thousand 
acres  of  land  as  a  compensation  for  his  services, 
and  with  something  very  like  indignation  when 
Franklin  told  him  with  "  a  manner  to  which  he 
was  then  little  accustomed  "  (not  the  court  man 
ner,  that  is,  but  one  that  he  became  well  accus 
tomed  to  in  the  sequel)  "  that  he  had  no  au 
thority  to  enter  into  engagements  and  could  not 
advance  him  anything  for  the  expense  of  his 
voyage." 

His  blood  was  roused.  This  was  not  the  way 
to  speak  to  a  man  whom  the  great  king  had  hon 
ored  with  his  confidence,  and  in  the  heat  of  his 
anger  away  he  went  to  Beaumarchais,  to  say  that 
he  should  go  immediately  back  to  Germany  and 
did  not  want  to  hear  anything  more  about 
America.  Next  day  he  went  to  Versailles.  St. 
Germain  seemed  hurt  at  his  decision,  but  what 
ever  his  knowledge  of  other  men  may  have  been, 
he  knew  Steuben  thoroughly ;  and  instead  of 
breaking  with  him  he  invited  him  to  pass  a  few 
days  at  his  house.  This  at  least  Steuben  could 
not  refuse.  After  dinner  the  Spanish  Embassa- 
dor,  Count  Aranda,  came  in ;  not,  perhaps,  alto 
gether  by  accident.  "  Here  is  a  man,"  said  St. 
Germain  as  he  presented  Steuben  to  him,  "  who 
will  risk  nothing,  consequently  he  will  gain  noth- 
ing." 


STEUBEN.  31 

When  Steuben  formed  at  Montpellier  the  ac 
quaintance  of  Earl  Spencer  and  the  Earl  of  War 
wick,  he  formed  at  the  same  time  the  acquaint 
ance  of  the  Prince  de  Montbarey,  who  like  most 
of  the  men  of  distinction  whom  he  was  brought 
into  connection  with,  conceived  a  high  opinion  of 
his  talents  and  an  affection  for  his  person.  He 
too  was  at  Versailles,  and  Steuben,  as  St.  Ger 
main  had  doubtless  foreseen,  went  to  wait  upon 
him.  Another  sharp  attack  upon  his  resolution 
by  another  friend.  "  I  can  determine  nothing," 
he  said,  "  until  I  return  to  Germany."  But  the 
idea  had  taken  possession  of  his  mind,  and  his 
friends' must  have  felt  almost  sure  of  him  when 
they  saw  him  turn  his  steps  homeward  instead 
of  going  to  England. 

It  has  taken  us  but  three  pages  to  tell  this  story, 
but  it  took  three  months  to  act  it  in,  and  July  was 
near  its  end  when  Steuben  reached  Rastadt.  A 
letter  from  Beaumarchais  was  there  before  him, 
telling  him  that  a  ship  and  money  were  ready  for 
him  and  that  Count  St.  Germain  expected  his 
immediate  return.  A  letter  from  the  count 
himself  urged  him  to  hasten  back  to  Versailles. 
Here,  as  with  Deane,  Beaumarchais  was  evidently 
acting  as  the  agent  of  the  ministry,  and  acting 
in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  author  of  the  "  Ma- 
riage  de  Figaro  "  and  the  "  Memoire  a  Consulter." 
How  could  a  straightforward,  hot-blooded,  honor- 


32  STEUBEN. 

loving  Steuben  hope  to  break  through  the  toils 
which  such  a  hand  had  spread  ? 

Just  at  that  time  the  Prince  Louis  William  of 
Baden  was  at  Rastadt,  and  Steuben,  who  placed 
great  confidence  in  his  judgment,  told  him  the 
story  and  showed  him  the  letters.  Prince  Louis, 
himself  a  lieutenant-general  in  the  service  of 
Holland,  could  see  no  room  for  hesitation,  and 
thus  between  two  princes,  three  counts,  and  the 
adroitest  of  negotiators,  the  aid-de-camp  of  the 
most  absolute  of  kings  surrendered  himself  to  the 
service  of  the  most  democratic  of  republics. 

There  were  still  difficult  details  to  arrange. 
First,  Frederick's  consent  to  transfer  to  Steuben's 
nephew,  the  Baron  von  Canitz,  his  canonry  of 
Havelberg  which  now  brought  him  an  income  of 
four  thousand  six  hundred  livres.  Then  the  fix 
ing  upon  a  definite  character  to  present  himself 
in,  and  securing,  as  far  as  possible,  the  means  of 
making  his  application  to  Congress  successful. 

It  was  already  known  in  France  that  a  strong 
feeling  had  been  excited  in  America  by  the  facil 
ity  with  which  the  Congress  had  given  commis 
sions  to  foreign  officers.  On  the  very  day  that 
Steuben  returned  to  Paris  to  resume  his  negotia 
tions,  Washington,  from  the  camp  in  which  he 
was  watching  the  movements  of  Sir  William 
Howe,  wrote  to  Franklin  "  that  every  new  arrival 
was  only  a  new  source  of  embarrassment  to  him 
self,  and  of  disappointment  and  chagrin  to  the 


STEUBEN.  33 

gentlemen  who  came  over."  l  It  was  evident 
that  no  Major,  no  Colonel  Steuben  could  be  ad 
vanced  to  a  position  in  which  he  could  introduce 
the  reforms  which  the  French  minister  felt  it  to 
be  so  important  to  effect,  without  seriously  offend 
ing  the  just  susceptibilities  of  the  native  officers. 
The  refusal  to  confirm  Deane's  contract  with  Du 
Coudray  was  one  of  the  objections  which  Steuben 
had  urged  after  his  interview  with  Franklin. 
And  yet  St.  Germain  and  Vergennes  were  both 
convinced  that  without  a  reform  in  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  American  army,  the  money  and  stores 
of  France  would  be  given  in  vain. 

It  was  decided,  therefore,  that  Steuben  should 
assume  the  rank  of  a  lieutenant-general,  an  as 
sumption  imperfectly  borne  out  by  his  actual 
rank  of  General  of  the  Circle  of  Suabia ;  and  to 
meet  the  objection  that  the  American  agents  had 
no  authority  to  treat  with  him,  that  he  should 
merely  wait  upon  them  to  announce  his  intention 
of  serving  one  or  two  campaigns  as  a  volunteer, 
and  ask  letters  to  the  leading  members  of  Con 
gress. 

He  had  not  yet  seen  Vergennes.  On  the  third 
day  after  his  return  Montbarey  introduced  him 
to  the  minister  in  a  special  audience.  "  You  are 
determined,  then,  to  go  to  America,"  said  the  vet 
eran  diplomatist. 

1  Sparks,  Writings  of  Washington,  T.  33. 
3 


34  STEUBEN. 

"Do  you  think  the  idea  extravagant?"  asked 
Steuben.  "  On  the  contrary,  it  is  the  road  to 
fame  and  distinction  ;  but  I  strongly  recommend 
you  to  make  an  agreement  beforehand,  and  not 
rely  too  implicitly  on  republican  generosity." 

Steuben  replied  that  he  should  make  no  condi 
tions  ;  but  that  if  the  republic  should  prove  un 
grateful  he  was  sure  that  the  King  of  France 
would  not,  and  that  Count  Vergennes  and  the 
Prince  de  Montbarey  would  take  care  that  his 
services  should  not  go  unrewarded.  The  minister 
was  instantly  on  his  guard.  "You  know  very  well 
that  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  make  conditions 
with  you.  I  can  only  say  to  you,  Go,  succeed,  and 
you  will  never  regret  the  step  you  have  taken." 

His  preparations  were  now  made  rapidly. 
With  St.  Germain  he  discussed  the  reforms  he 
proposed  to  introduce  into  the  American  army. 
From  Beaumarchais  he  received  as  a  loan  the 
money  for  his  outfit  and  passage.  He  chose 
four  officers  for  aids,  De  1'Enfant,  De  Romanai, 
Des  Epinieres,  and  De  Ponthiere.  Not  knowing 
English  he  required  a  secretary  and  interpreter, 
and  at  Beaumarchais'  house  he  found  Peter  S. 
Duponceau,  well  known  some  thirty  years  ago  to 
the  citizens  of  Philadelphia  as  a  hale  old  man, 
to  the  legal  world  as  a  skillful  lawyer,  to  pub 
licists  as  the  translator  of  Bynkershoeck,  to  the 
world  of  letters  as  the  author  of  a  treatise  on  the 


STEUBEN.  35 

Chinese  language  which  won  the  prize  of  the  In 
stitute  of  his  native  France  ;  but  then  a  gay,  light- 
hearted  young  Frenchman  of  seventeen,  with  a 
remarkable  talent  for  the  study  of  language,  and 
a  premonitory  passion  for  English  which  won  him, 
at  the  Benedictine  convent  where  he  studied,  the 
nickname  of  L' Anglais.     Two  vessels  were  upon 
the  point  of  sailing  for  America  with  part  of  the 
arms  and  stores  furnished  by  Beaumarchais  under 
the  name  of  Hortalez  &  Co.,  and  the  royal  com 
missioner   gave  Steuben   his  choice  of   the  two. 
By  the  advice  of  Count  Miranda  he  fixed  up6n 
the  Heureux,  a  twenty-four  gun  ship  which  was 
to   sail   from    Marseilles   under   the  name  of  Le 
Flamand.     Steuben,  also,  assumed  a  new  name, 
Frank,  and  as  a  protection  in  case  of  capture  by 
the  English,  received  dispatches  under  that  name 
to  the  governor  of  Martinique.     Then,  cheerful, 
self-reliant,   nothing   doubting  but  that   two   or 
three  years  would  see  him  safely  returned  with  a 
full  purse   and  laureled   brow,  to  talk   over  his 
campaigns   in   the   saloons  of  Paris   and   at   the 
watering-places  of  Germany,  he  embarked  with 
his   military  family  on    the    26th  of  September, 
1777,  just  fifteen  days  after  the  battle  of  Brandy- 
wine,  and  while  the  weary  and  half-trained  band 
which  before  another  campaign  he  was  to  form 
into  a  disciplined  army  was  slowly  making  its  way 
to  the  position  from  whence,  in  eight  days  more, 
it  was  to  make  its  bold  dash  upon  German  town. 


36  STEUBEN. 

The  Flamand's  passage  was  long,  boisterous, 
and  perilous  ;  first  down  the  Mediterranean,  along 
the  bold,  mountainous  coast  of  Spain,  and  then, 
with  Africa  slowly  receding  on  the  left  and  Spain 
on  the  right,  and  sailing  unconsciously  over  Tra 
falgar,  Steuben  took  his  last  look  of  the  Old 
World  with  its  memories,  and  stretched  boldly 
out  into  the  Atlantic,  on  the  path  of  a  New 
World  and  its  hopes. 

He  was  familiar  with  the  monotony  of  a  camp, 
and  found  it  no  bad  preparation  for  the  monotony 
of  a  ship.  To  while  away  the  time  he  amused 
himself  with  mathematical  calculations,  shot  at  a 
mark  with  his  companions,  read  the  Abbe  Raynal, 
kindling  the  hitherto  dormant  fires  of  republic 
anism,  and  doubtless  also  often  thought  long  and 
deeply  on  the  best  methods  of  applying  Prussian 
tactics  to  an  army  of  freemen.  More  than  once, 
too,  the  monotony  was  broken.  A  severe  gale  off 
the  coast  of  Africa  may  have  awakened  unpleasant 
thoughts  of  slavery  among  the  Moors.  Another, 
off  the  coast  of  Nova  Scotia,  gave  him  a  fore 
taste  of  American  winds  in  November.  There 
were  seventeen  hundred- weight  of  gunpowder  on 
board,  and  the  forecastle  was  three  times  on  fire. 
There  were  some  gunpowder  spirits  on  board,  also, 
who  stirred  up  a  mutiny  which  was  only  put  down 
by  hard  fighting,  fourteen  against  eighty-four.  At 
last  the  land  came  in  sight,  and  on  a  bright,  clear, 


STEUBEN.  37 

1st  of  December  the  Flamand  entered  the  har 
bor  of  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  and  Steuben 
saw  for  the  first  time  the  flag  of  the  republic 
waving  over  an  American  fortress. 

Assuming  at  once  the  dignity  of  his  rank,  he 
sent  Duponceau  ashore  to  announce  his  arrival 
to  the  American  commander.  And  then  the  wag 
gish  youngster,  in  his  scarlet  regimentals  turned 
up  with  blue,  won  the  bet  he  had  made  on  the 
passage,  that  he  would  kiss  the  first  girl  he  saw. 
For  walking  up  to  one,  as  none  but  a  Frenchman 
could,  he  told  her  that  he  was  come  to  fight  the 
battles  of  her  country,  and  that  before  he  left  his 
own  he  had  solemnly  vowed  to  ask,  as  a  token 
of  success,  a  kiss  from  the  first  lady  he  met. 
The  damsel  listened,  and  moved  either  by  a  sense 
of  patriotism,  or  by  reverence  for  the  sanctity  of  a 
vow,  or  by  the  eloquence  of  young  eyes  and  a 
fresh  uniform,  or  because  she  did  not  disapprove 
of  kissing,  held  with  a  becoming  blush  her  cheek 
or  her  lips  —  the  record  does  not  say  which  —  to 
the  adventurous  salute. 

As  soon  as  General  Langdon  learned  that  the 
anchoring  ship  held  a  Prussian  lieutenant-general, 
a  veteran  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  he  hastened 
on  board  to  welcome  him,  and,  taking  him  and 
his  suite  in  his  barge,  brought  them  to  the  land 
ing,  whither  the  whole  town  was  flocking  to  gaze 
at  and  greet  them.  Meanwhile  the  guns  of  the 


38  STEUBEN. 

fortress  fired  a  lieutenant-general's  salute,  and  the 
ships  in  the  harbor,  displaying  their  flags,  joined 
in  the  national  welcome.  At  that  day's  dinner 
Steuben  first  heard  of  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne, 
and  hailed  the  tidings  as  a  happy  omen.  The 
day  following  he  visited  the  fortifications,  and  the 
next  reviewed  the  troops.  One  of  his  earliest 
cares,  also,  was  to  write  to  Washington  and  Con 
gress,  expressing  his  "  desire  "  to  deserve  the  title 
of  a  citizen  of  America  by  fighting  for  her  liberty. 
With  his  own  letters  he  forwarded  copies  of  those 
of  Franklin,  Deane,  and  Beaumarchais.  Then, 
on  the  12th  of  December,  he  set  out  for  Boston. 

Here  his  chief  entertainer  was  John  Hancock, 
who  was  just  returning  to  private  life  after  honor 
able  service  in  Congress  ;  and  often,  during  the  five 
weeks  that  the  bad  roads  kept  Steuben  waiting  for 
the  answers  to  his  letters,  his  feet  trod  that  long 
flight  of  steps  and  crossed  that  hospitable  thresh 
old  which  but  a  few  years  ago  were  still  standing 
to  tell  of  the  olden  time  and  Boston's  provincial 
splendor.  At  last  Washington's  answer  came, 
courteous  though  formal,  and  referring  him  to 
Congress  as  the  only  body  authorized  to  accept 
offers  of  service  or  make  appointments.  At  the 
same  time  Hancock  informed  him  that  he  had 
been  directed  by  Congress  to  make  every  prepa 
ration  for  securing  him  and  his  suite  a  comfortable 
Journey  to  York,  in  Pennsylvania,  where  Congress 


STEUBEN.  39 

was  then  sitting.  Hancock  was  not  the  man  to 
do  this  work  negligently.  The  ground  was  cov 
ered  with  snow,  and  sleighs  with  five  negroes  for 
drivers  and  grooms  were  prepared  for  the  bag 
gage,  and  saddle-horses  for  the  general  and  his 
suite.  A  purveyor,  too,  accompanied  them  to 
provide  provisions  and  quarters.  The  enemy 
were  in  possession  of  Newport  and  New  York,  and 
made  frequent  incursions  into  the  interior.  A 
roundabout  course,  extending  to  four  hundred 
and  ten  miles,  was  the  only  course  Steuben  and 
his  party  could  take  without  exposing  themselves 
to  unnecessary  danger.  The  journey  began  on 
the  14th  of  January,  and  it  was  the  5th  of  Febru 
ary  before  they  reached  York.  Thus  at  the  very 
outset  Steuben  gained  what  to  his  military  eye 
was  an  invaluable  view  of  a  large  section  of  his 
new  country.  He  got  also  a  few  glimpses  of  one 
of  its  elements  of  danger,  the  tory  element. 

In  Worcester  County,  near  the  Connecticut  bor 
der,  was  a  tavern  notorious  by  the  ill  fame  of  its 
tory  landlord,  and  which  Steuben  had  been  coun 
seled  to  avoid.  But  a  snow-storm  left  him  no 
alternative,  and  at  nightfall  his  weary  train  drew 
reins  at  the  door  of  evil  name.  True  to  his  rep 
utation,  the  landlord  told  them  that  if  they  would 
stop  at  his  house  they  would  have  to  take  up  with 
bare  walls  ;  for  he  had  neither  beds,  bread,  meat, 
drink,  milk,  nor  eggs  for  them.  Remonstrances 


40  STEUBEN. 

and  even  entreaties  were  powerless.  Steuben's 
blood  began  to  boil ;  a  copious  shower  of  Ger 
man  oaths  was  tried  and  all  in  vain.  "  Bring  me 
my  pistols,"  he  cried  in  German,  to  his  German 
servant,  and  while  the  landlord  was  looking  on 
with  malignant  satisfaction  he  suddenly  found  a 
pistol  at  his  breast,  "  Can  you  give  us  beds  ?  " 
"  Yes,"  trembled  the  affrighted  miscreant. 
"  Bread?"  "Yes."  "  Meat,  drink,  milk,  eggs  ?" 
and  still  "  Yes,"  to  each  demand.  The  loyalist 
saw  that  the  terrible  German  was  in  earnest. 
The  table  was  quickly  spread,  all  wants  abun 
dantly  supplied,  and  after  a  comfortable  night 
and  a  good  breakfast  the  party  resumed  their 
journey,  not  forgetting  to  pay  the  tory  liberally 
in  Continental  money. 

One  feature  of  the  journey,  however,  was  very 
grateful  to  Steuben's  German  pride.  The  Seven 
Years'  War  was  still  a  recent  event,  and  Freder 
ick  a  popular  name  everywhere,  more  especially 
among  the  Germans.  Hence  town,  village,  or 
wayside  inn  displayed  the  well-known  sharp  feat 
ures  and  high  shoulder  as  a  sign,  and  decked  its 
walls  with  prints  in  honor  of  the  great  king,  and 
sometimes  to  the  disparagement  of  the  "  great 
nation."  At  Manheim  in  particular  the  baron, 
with  a  significant  glance  and  great  internal  en 
joyment,  called  the  attention  of  his  French  secre 
tary  to  an  engraving  on  the  dining-room  wall, 


STEUBEN.  41 

representing  a  Prussian  knocking  down  a  French 
man,  -with  the  motto,  u  Ein  Franzmann  zum 
Preuszen  wie  eine  Miicke  "  (A  Frenchman  to  a 
Prussian  is  like  a  gnat). 

And  now  opens  the  serious  chapter  of  Steuben's 
American  life.  The  Congress  at  York  was  not 
that  wise  Congress  which  had  declared  independ-, 
ence  and  launched  the  new  "  ship  of  state  "  upon 
its  perilous  voyage,  but  that  weak  and  divided  Con 
gress  which  had  opened  its  ears  to  calumnies  upon 
Washington  and  almost  resolved  to  set  up  Gates 
as  his  rival.  Gates  himself,  with  a  brain  whirling 
with  the  excitement  of  unmerited  success,  was  en 
joying  the  good  dinners  and  warm  quarters  at  the 
temporary  seat  of  government,  while  Washington 
was  starving  and  freezing  with  his  army  in  the 
huts  and  hovels  of  Valley  Forge.  How  was  Steu- 
ben  with  his  five  weeks'  stock  of  English  to  dis 
tinguish  between  the  true  hero  and  the  false  one  ? 

St.  Germain  had  chosen  his  man  well ;  an  ex 
perienced  and  scientific  soldier,  for  no  other  could 
have  done  such  work  as  he  was  appointed  to  do  ; 
a  man  experienced  in  men,  also,  and  both  too  wise 
and  too  honorable  to  become  the  tool  of  a  faction. 
Gates  loaded  him  with  civilities  and  urged  him  to 
stay  at  his  house.  But,  meeting  the  civilities 
with  polite  appreciation,  he  refused  the  danger 
ous  hospitality. 

It  became  apparent  that  in  counseling  Steuben 


42  STEUBEN. 

to  assume  a  rank  unknown  in  the  American 
army,  Vergennes,  St.  Germain,  Montbarey,  and 
Miranda  had  proved  themselves  wise  in  their  gen 
eration.  Dazzled  by  the  claim  which  was  so  well 
borne  out  by  his  professional  knowledge  and  per 
sonal  dignity,  Congress  appointed  a  special  com 
mittee  to  wait  upon  him  and  listen  to  his  pro 
posals.  They  were  not  such  as  Congress  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  receiving  ;  for  he  told  them 
that  he  asked  for  neither  rank  nor  pay,  that  he 
wished  to  enter  the  army  as  a  volunteer  and  per 
form  any  duty  which  the  commander-in-chief 
might  assign  him,  and  that  commissions  for  his 
aids  and  the  payment  of  his  actual  expenses  were 
the  only  conditions  which  he  should  stipulate,  leav 
ing  the  question  of  ultimate  compensation  to.  be 
decided  by  the  success  or  failure  of  the  struggle. 
No  time  was  lost  in  idle  discussions.  The  com 
mittee  reported  without  delay.  The  next  day  he 
received  a  formal  entertainment  from  Congress 
as  a  mark  of  special  honor ;  members  and  guests 
gazing  upon  him,  as  in  his  rich  uniform  and  with 
the  star  of  his  order  which  never  left  his  breast 
he  sat  at  the  right  hand  of  President  Laurens, 
and  arguing  well  for  the  army  which  was  to  be 
trained  by  a  man  of  such  a  keen  eye  and  soldierly 
bearing.  Then  when  the  dinner  was  over,  the  pres 
ident  handed  him  the  resolutions  of  Congress. 
"  Whereas^  Baron  Steuben,  a  lieutenant-gen- 


STEUBEN.  43 

eral  in  foreign  service,  has  in  a  most  disinterested 
and  heroic  manner  offered  his  services  to  these 
States  as  a  volunteer, 

"  Resolved,  That  the  president  present  the 
thanks  of  Congress,  in  behalf  of  these  United 
States,  to  Baron  Steuben,  for  the  zeal  he  has 
shown  for  the  cause  of  America  and  the  disinter 
ested  tender  he  has  been  pleased  to  make  of  his 
military  talents,  and  inform  him  that  Congress 
cheerfully  accepts  of  his  services  as  a  volunteer  in 
the  army  of  these  States,  and  wish  him  to  repair 
to  General  Washington's  quarters  as  soon  as  con 
venient." 

Steuben  lost  no  time  in  setting  out  for  camp. 
The  ovations  continued.  At  Lancaster  the  Ger 
man  population  felt  all  their  national  pride  re 
vived  at  the  approach  of  such  a  German.  A  sub 
scription  ball  was  given  in  honor  of  his  arrival, 
and  great  was  the  mutual  satisfaction  as  they 
looked  upon  his  noble  bearing  and  brilliant  deco 
rations,  and  he  heard  once  more  from  woman's 
lips  the  accents  of  his  native  tongue.  While  he 
was  yet  some  miles  from  camp,  Washington  came 
out  to  meet  him  and  conduct  him  to  his  quarters. 
There  a  guard  of  twenty-five  men  had  been  sta 
tioned,  with  an  officer  at  their  head.  Steuben 
would  have  declined  the  honor,  saying  that  he 
was  merely  a  volunteer.  "  The  whole  army," 
said  Washington,  "  would  gladly  stand  sentinel 


44  STEUBEN. 

for  such  volunteers."  The  next  day  the  troops 
were  mustered,  and  Washington  accompanied 
Steuben  to  pass  them  in  review. 

During  part  of  his  life,  at  least,  Washington 
was  a  soldier  at  heart.  When 'he  first  heard  the 
bullets  whistle  he  found  "  something  charming  in 
the  sound."  1  He  had  often  said  that  "  the  most 
beautiful  spectacle  he  had  ever  beheld  was  the 
display  of  the  British  troops"  on  the  morning  of 
Braddock's  defeat.2  And  even  after  he  had  de 
clared  that  "  he  scarcely  could  conceive  the  cause 
that  would  induce  him  to  draw  his  sword  again,"3 
he  wrote  to  Lafayette  that  u  as  an  unobserved  spec 
tator  he  would  be  glad  to  peep  at  the  Prussian 
and  Austrian  troops  at  their  manceuvrings  on  a 
grand  field-day."  4  Thus,  when  Steuben  came  to 
him  as  a  Prussian  veteran,  he  felt  that  there  was 
a  bond  between  them  which  they  might  both 
cheerfully  acknowledge.  And,  perhaps,  he  also 
felt  that  to  bring  him  at  once  before  the  army  as 
the  object  of  uncommon  honors  was  the  surest 
way  of  preparing  it  to  look  up  to  him  as  a  man 
capable  of  imparting  to  it  the  knowledge  and 
habits  in  which  it  was  so  universally  deficient. 

1  The  discovery  of  a  letter  of  Washington's  with  these  very 
words  in  it,  confirms  Wai  pole's  story,  hitherto  called  in  ques 
tion  as  inconsistent  with  Washington's  character.     Vide  Irving, 
i.  124,  note. 

2  Sparks,  Life  of  Washington,  p.  65. 

*  Lett,  to  Marquis  de  la  Rouerie,  Oct.  7,  1795. 
4  Sparks,  Writings  of  Washington,  ix.  145. 


STEUBEN.  45 

It  was  a  great  relief  to  Washington's  mind  to 
find  that  he  had  no  longer  an  unprincipled  in 
triguer  like  Conway  to  look  to  for  the  reform  of 
discipline,  but  "  a  gentleman  —  a  man  of  military 
knowledge,"  l  and   with   that  knowledge  of  the 
world  without  which  the  highest  military  knowl 
edge  would  have  been  of  no  avail.     But  it  was  a 
serious  drawback  that   he  could   talk  with  him 
only  through    an   interpreter,  even   though   the 
interpreter  was  Hamilton  or  Laurens.    At  no  time 
in  the  course  of  the  war  had  the  condition  of  the 
army  been  more  distressing.    The  life  at  Valley 
Forge  was  a  daily  struggle  with  cold  and  hunger  ; 
the  log  and  mud  huts  in  which  the  troops  lived 
were  an  imperfect  protection  against  the  rigor  of 
the  winter,  made  doubly  severe  by  the  want  of 
proper  clothing  and  nutritious  food.     The    fre 
quent   failure    of   supplies   had   familiarized  the 
minds  of  the  men  with  the  idea  of  mutiny,  and 
brought  the    officers  to   feel  that  if- not   almost 
justifiable,  it  was  at  least  inevitable.     There  was 
no  assurance  of  greater  regularity  or  abundance 
in  the  future  to  help  bear  up  against  the  pressure 
of  the  present.     Out  of  the  original  force  of  sev 
enteen  thousand  men,  there  were  three  thousand 
nine   hundred   and   eighty-nine  without   clothes 
enough  to  enable  them  to  mount  guard  or  appear 
on   parade.      From   desertion   and   disease,   five 

l  Sparks,  Writings  of  Washington,  v.  244. 


46  STEUBEN. 

thousand  and  twelve  men  were  all  that  could  be 
called  out  for  duty,  and  these  were  so  imperfectly 
armed  that  muskets,  fowling-pieces,  and  rifles 
were  found  in  the  same  company,  with  a  few  bay 
onets  scattered  here  and  there  ;  guns  and  bayonets 
alike  rusty  and  unfit  for  service.  These,  however 
were  the  men  with  whom  Washington  had  ma 
noeuvred  in  front  and  on  the  flanks  of  the  well- 
armed  and  well-disciplined  army  of  Sir  William 
Howe  ;  had  fought  the  battle  of  the  Brandywine, 
where  a  portion  of  them  under  Greene  had 
marched  four  miles  in  forty-nine  minutes,  seizing 
and  holding  a  favorable  position  for  covering 
the  retreat  of  the  main  body  ;  and  the  battle  of 
Germantown,  where  a  dense  fog  a*nd  an  error 
of  judgment  were  all  that  saved  the  British 
army  from  defeat  and  capture.  And  they  had 
done  all  this  because  they  possessed  what  Bur- 
goyne  1  attributed  to  the  northern  army,  "  the 
fundamental  points  of  military  institution,  so 
briety,  subordination,  regularity,  and  courage. 
....  Their  panics  were  confined  and  of  short 
duration  ;  their  enthusiasm  extensive  and  perma 
nent."  It  was  to  the  honor  of  Steuben's  sagacity 
that,  with  an  eye  accustomed  to  the  faultless 
equipments  and  precision  of  movement  of  Prus 
sian  troops,  he  should  have  detected  those  funda- 

1  Letter  to  Lord  G.  Germain.     Sparks,  Correspondence  of  the 
Revolution,  ii.  96,  97,  note. 


STEUBEN.  47 

mental  points,  or  the  capacity  for  acquiring  them, 
under  the  rags  and  rusty  equipments  and  in  the 
awkward  u  Indian  file  "  of  the  American  troops. 
And  it  was  still  more  to  the  honor  of  his  energy 
and  force  of  will  that,  "  without  understanding  a 
word  of  the  English  language,  he  should  think 
of  bringing  men  born  free,  and  united  for  the 
defense  of  their  freedom,  into  strict  subjection  ; 
to  teach  them  to  obey  without  a  question  the 
mandates  of  a  master,  —  and  that  master  once 
their  equal,  or  possibly  beneath  them  in  whatever 
might  become  a  man." ] 

One  of  the  characteristic  acts  of  the  Conway 
cabal  had  been  the  creation  for  Conway  of  the 
office  of  inspector-general,  with  powers  so  exten 
sive  as  to  justify  the  expression  of  "imperium  in 
imperio,"  which  Marshall  applies  to  the  organi 
zation  of  the  commissariat.2  But,  happily  for  the 
army,  the  conspiracy  was  detected  before  he  had 
entered  fully  upon  the  performance  of  his  duties, 
and  thus  one  of  the  immediate  results  of  the  at 
tempt  to  forward  the  malignant  aims  of  a  vile 
intriguer  was  to  prepare  the  way  for  a  high- 
minded  and  honorable  man.  In  another  way, 
too,  the  Providence  that  watched  over  us  had 
educed  good  from  this  evil!  Mifflin,  the  quarter- 

1  A  Biographical  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Baron  Steuben,  etc.,  by 
General  W.  North,  Steuben's  Aid.     Kapp,  p.  129,  130. 

2  Marshall's  Washington,  i.  215,  2d  ed. 


48  STEUBEN. 

master-general,  though  originally  a  member  of 
Washington's  family,  and  intrusted  by  him  with 
this  responsible  office  "  from  a  thorough  persua 
sion  of  his  integrity,"  1  had  proved  false  both  to 
Washington  and  to  his  country  ;  neglecting  his 
official  duties  and  entering  deeply  into  the  plots  of 
the  intriguers.  During  the  hardships  of  this  try 
ing  winter  he  had  held  himself  aloof  from  camp, 
and  contributed  nothing  either  directly  or  indi 
rectly  to  the  feeding  or  clothing  of  the  army.  At 
last  a  committee  was  sent  by  Congress  to  take 
counsel  with  Washington  and  see  what  could  be 
done  to  avert  the  dangers  of  "  a  dissolution,  or  star 
vation,  or  mutiny  "2  which  were  becoming  more 
and  niore  imminent  every  day.  One  of  the  effects 
of  their  exertions  and  representations  was  the 
appointment  of  General  Greene  as  Mifflin's  suc 
cessor.  One  of  the  chief  obstacles  to  the  estab 
lishment  of  discipline  was  thus  removed,  and  if 
zeal  and  energy  could  accomplish  it,  the  army 
would  henceforth  be  fed  and  clothed. 

Steuben's  first  step  was  to  draw  up  a  plan  of 
inspectorship,  and  after  revising  it  with  the  assist 
ance  of  Greene,  Hamilton,  and  Laurens,  submit  it 
to  Washington  for  approval.  Washington  ap 
proved  it,  and  transmitted  it  to  Congress.  There 

1  Sparks,  Writings  of  Washington,  iii.  68. 

2  Nearly  Washington's  words.     Vide,  also,  for  a  vivid  picture 
of  the  state  of  things  at  Morristown,  Washington    to  Wayne, 
Sparks,  v.  232,  and  to  Geo.  Clinton,  v.  238. 


STEUBEN.  49 

<xf    ^A 

was  no  time  to  lose.     Winter  was  passing,  and 
the  day  for  opening  a  new  campaign   drawing 
menacingly  near.     "  Will  you  undertake  to  ex 
ecute    this  plan?"  asked  Washington.     "With 
your  support  and  assistance,  I  will,"  replied  Steu- 
ben.     He   began    by  drafting   from   the   line   a 
hundred   and   twenty  men,  as   a   guard   for   the 
commander-in-chief   and    a   military    school   for 
himself.     These  men  he  drilled  twice  a  day  ;  and 
striking  from  the  outset  an  effective  blow  at  the 
prejudice  (one  of  England's  legacies)  which  led 
officers  to  regard  the  drilling  of   a  recruit  as  a 
sergeant's  and  not  an  officer's  business,  he  took 
the  musket  into  his  own  hands  and  showed  them 
how   he   wished   them   to  handle  it.     At  every 
drill  his  division  inspectors  were  required  to  be 
present,  and  doubtless  many  officers  and  soldiers 
were  present,  too,  without  requisition.    "  In  a  fort 
night,"  he  writes,  "  my  company  knew  perfectly 
how  to  bear  arms,  had  a  military  air,  knew  how 
to  march,  to  form  in  column,  deploy,  and  execute 
some  little  manoeuvres  with  excellent  precision." 
Hitherto,  every  attempt  to  instruct  the  soldiers 
had  been  begun,  according  to  rule,  by  the  manual 
exercise ;  and,  now  from  one  cause  and  now  from 
another,  every  such  attempt  had  failed.    In  noth 
ing  did  Steuben's  superiority  to  a  mere  martinet 
appear  more   decidedly  than  in  his  passing  the 
manual  by  and  beginning  with  manoeuvres.    The 


50  STEUBEN. 

sight  of  men  advancing,  retreating,  wheeling,  de 
ploying,  attacking  with  the  bayonet,  changing 
front,  and  all  with  promptness  and  precision, 
made  an  impression  upon  the  spectator  which  no 
perfection  in  the  mere  handling  of  the  musket 
could  have  produced.  The  actors,  too,  moved  by 
a  common  impulse,  felt  that  confidence  in  them 
selves  which  men  always  feel  when  acting  harmo 
niously  together,  and  learnt,  from  the  outset,  to 
look  with  double  confidence  upon  the  man  who 
had  awakened  them  to  a  consciousness  of  their 
short-comings  by  "  skillfully  yielding  to  circum 
stances  "  in  the  development  of  their  capacities. 
Every  scholar  of  this  school  became  an  apostle  of 
reform.  The  army  that  looked  on  and  admired 
longed  to  be  permitted  to  share  in  the  lesson. 
Battalions  came  next,  then  brigades,  and  then 
divisions.  It  was  on  the  24th  of  March  that  the 
elementary  manoeuvres  began,  and  by  the  29th 
of  April,  American  troops,  for  the  first  time  since 
the  opening  of  the  war,  were  able  to  execute  the 
grand  manoeuvres  of  a  regular  army.  On  the 
5th  of  May,  Steuben  was  appointed  by  Congress 
inspector-general,  with  the  rank  and  pay  of 
major-general. 

Steuben's  success  is  easily  explained.  His 
heart  was  in  his  work.  He  was  up  before  day, 
smoked  a  single  pipe,  swallowed  a  single  cup  of 
coffee,  had  his  hair  carefully  dressed,  his  uni- 


STEUBEN.  51 

form  carefully  put  on ;  and  then,  as  the  first 
sunbeam  appeared,  he  was  in  the  saddle  and  off 
for  the  parade-ground.  There  was  no  waiting 
for  loitering  aids.  No  part  of  his  work  was  be 
neath  him.  He  took  the  guns  into  his  own 
hands,  examined  the  equipments  with  his  own 
experienced  eye.  Not  a  voice  was  to  be  heard 
but  his,  and  that  of  his  officers  as  they  repeated 
his  orders.  Not  a  mistake  passed  unreproved. 
"  Ah,"  said  one  of  his  captains,  a  captain  once, 
but  then  the  keeper  of  a  country  tavern,  "how 
glad  I  am  to  see  you,  baron,  in  my  house  ;  but  I 
used  to  be  dreadfully  afraid  of  you."  "  How  so, 
captain  ?  "  "  You  hallooed  and  swore  and  looked 
so  dreadfully  at  me  once,  baron,  that  I  shall 
never  forget  it.  When  I  saw  you  so  strict  to  the 
officers  on  my  right,  I  felt  very  queer ;  and  when 
you  came  up  to  me,  baron,  I  hardly  knew  what 
to  do,  and  I  quaked  in  my  shoes."  "  Oh  fie,  dear 
captain."  "  It  was  bad,  to  be  sure,  but  you  did 
halloo  most  tremendously." 

The  conviction  that  he  was  thoroughly  master 
of  what  he  was  teaching  them  would  hardly  have 
reconciled  officers  and  men  to  his  severity  and 
"  sudden  gusts  of  passion,"  if  they  had  not  been 
equally  convinced  of  his  justice.  Once  at  a 
review  near  Morristowii,  Lieutenant  Gibbons,  a 
brave  and  good  officer,  was  arrested  on  the  spot 
and  ordered  into  the  rear  for  a  fault  which  it  aft- 


52  STEUBEN, 

erwards  appeared  another  had  committed.  At 
a  proper  moment  the  commander  of  the  regiment 
came  forward  and  informed  the  baron  of  Mr. 
Gibbons's  innocence,  of  his  worth,  and  of  his  acute 
feelings  under  this  unmerited  disgrace.  "  Desire 
Lieutenant  Gibbons  to  come  to  the  front,  colonel." 
"  Sir,"  said  the  baron  to  the  young  gentleman, 
"  the  fault  which  was  made,  by  throwing  the  line 
into  confusion,  might,  in  the  presence  of  an  enemy, 
have  been  fatal.  I  arrested  you  as  its  supposed 
author  ;  but  I  have  reason  to  believe  that  I  was 
mistaken,  and  that  in  this  instance  you  were 
blameless;  I  ask  your  pardon:  return  to  your 
command.  I  would  not  deal  unjustly  by  any, 
much  less  by  one  whose  character  as  an  officer  is 
so  respectable."  l  All  the  while  he  was  saying 
this  it  was  raining  violently  ;  and  the  men  who 
saw  him  standing  there  hat  in  hand  before  his 
subaltern,  heedless  of  the  rain  that  poured  down 
upon  his  unprotected  head,  never  forgot  the 
scene. 

Thus  far  all  went  on  well.  Even  in  their  tat 
ters  the  men  began  to  feel  a  pride  in  being  sol 
diers.  If  some  officers  were  still  compelled  to 
mount  guard  in  an  old  blanket  cut  into  the  shape 
of  a  dressing-gown,  they  knew,  at  least,  how  to 
perform  the  duty  of  officers  on  guard.  Washing 
ton,  in  general  orders,  praised  their  progress  and 

J    i  North  in  Thacher's  Military  Journal,  p.  416. 


STEUBEN.  53 

thanked  the  man  to  whom  they  owed  it.  But 
now  arose  the  question  of  converting  this  tempo 
rary  inspectorship  into  a  permanent  inspectorship 
with  corresponding  rank  in  the  line.  A  reform 
in  drill  was  but  a  small  part  of  the  real  work  to 
be  done.  The  whole  organization  of  the  army 
required  reform  in  all  its  parts.  The  quarter 
master-general's  department  was  now  secure; 
the  commissariat  also.  "  The  internal  administra 
tion  of  a  regiment  and  a  company  was  a  thing 
completely  unknown."  "The  number  of  men  in  a 
regiment  as  well  as  in  a  company  was  fixed  by 
Congress,"  but  some  were  three  months'  men, 
some  six,  some  nine.  There  was  a  constant  ebb 
and  flow,  a  constant  coming  and  going.  Accu 
rate  returns  of  such  regiments  were  out  of  the 
question.  "  Sometimes  a  regiment  was  stronger 
than  a  brigade  ; "  sometimes  it  contained  but  thirty 
men,  and  a  company  but  a  single  corporal.  The 
men  "  were-  scattered  about  everywhere."  Offi 
cers  acted  as  if  the  army  were  but  a  nursery  of 
servants ;  each  claiming  one,  many  two  or  three. 
And  thus  many  hundred  soldiers  were  converted 
into  valets.  But  on  the  regimental  books  they 
still  held  their  places  unchanged  ;  and  long  after 
many  of  them  had  ceased  to  belong  to  the  army 
even  as  valets,  pay  was  still  drawn  in  their 
names  from  the  impoverished  treasury.  Leaves 
of  absence  and  even  dismissals  were  given  by 
colonels  and  sometimes  by  captains  at  will. 


54  STEUBEN. 

While  men  went  and  came  in  this  manner,  and 
were  thus  employed,  there  could  be  little  hope  of 
preserving  the  public  property  intrusted  to  their 
hands.  Every  musket  was  valued  at  eighteen 
dollars  with  a  bayonet,  and  at  sixteen  without 
one.  And  yet  for  every  campaign  from  five  to 
eight  thousand  muskets  were  required,  to  replace 
those  lost  by  negligence  or  carried  off  by  the  men 
whose  terms  of  enlistment  had  expired.  With 
the  most  methodical  and  systematic  of  men  at 
their  head,  it  had  been  utterly  impossible  to  intro 
duce  method  or  system  into  this  ebbing  and  flow 
ing  mass. 

Steuben  aimed  at  the  correction  of  all  these 
abuses  ;  but  unfortunately,  in  asking  for  the  pow 
ers  which  he  deemed  essential  for  the  accomplish 
ment  of  his  task,  he  asked  for  some  which  seemed 
to  trench  upon  the  rights  of  other  officers.  Some 
of  the  major-generals  became  alarmed.  All  the 
brigadiers,  it  was  apprehended,  would  resign  if 
his  demands  were  complied  with.  Whatever 
Washington's  private  opinion  may  have  been,  he 
publicly  conformed  to  the  public  opinion,  and  is 
sued  in  June  the  general  orders  by  which  —  Con 
gress  with  its  wonted  dilatoriness  putting  off  a  de 
cision  from  day  to  day  —  the  office  continued  to  be 
regulated  till  1779.  These  orders  not  only  de 
fined  the  duties  but  greatly  limited  the  powers 
of  the  inspector-general,  Steuben  saw  the  cause 


STEUBEN.  55 

and  understood  it,  foresaw,  too,  the  consequences 
and  deplored  them  ;  but,  faithful  to  his  resolu 
tion,  adapted  himself  to  circumstances,  and  con 
tinued  to  labor  with  unabated  energy  in  his  daily 
drills  and  special  reforms. 

Events  were  already  demonstrating  the  excel 
lence  of  his  work.  In  May,  1778,  Lafayette,  upon 
the  point  of  seeing  himself  outnumbered  and  cut 
off  from  the  main  body  of  the  army,  was  able 
to  save  his  men  by  an  orderly  retreat,  in  which 
their  good  discipline  was  manifest.  Washing 
ton,  however,  anxious  for  Lafayette's  detachment, 
ordered  out  the  whole  army  to  support  it ;  and 
in  less  than  fifteen  minutes  the  whole  army  was 
under  arms  and  ready  to  march.  At  Monmouth, 
not  long  after,  at  the  sound  of  Steuben's  now 
familiar  voice,  Lee's  broken  ranks  rallied  and 
wheeled  into  line  under  a  heavy  fire  as  calmly 
and  precisely  as  if  the  battle-field  had  been  a 
parade-ground. 

But  the  roar  of  the  cannon  stirred  the  old  sol 
dier's  blood,  and  he  began  to  feel  keen  longings 
for  more  exciting  work  than  teaching  manoeuvres 
and  examining  reports.  It  so  chanced,  also,  that, 
most  of  the  brigadiers  being  called  away  by  Lee's 
court-martial,  Washington  found  it  necessary  to 
give  Steuben  the  temporary  command  of  a  divis 
ion,  on  the  march  to  the  Hudson  in  July,  1778. 
And  thus,  when  directed  to  resume  his  duties  as 


56  \STEUBEN. 

inspector-general,  all  the  vexation  and  disgust  he 
had  felt  at  the  obstacles  which  had  been  unnec 
essarily  thrown  in  his  way  were  renewed,  height 
ened  by  the  refusal  of  De  Neuville,  the  inspector  * 
of  Gates's  army,  to  receive  orders  from  him  as 
inspector-general.     He  now  talked  freely  of  his 
dissatisfaction,  objected  to  the  position  which  he 
had  hitherto  worked  in  so  cheerfully,  and  more 
than  intimated  his  intention  to  resign  unless  his 
desire  for  a  command  in  the  line  were  complied 
with.    It  was  natural,  but  it  was  unfortunate,  and 
there   can  be  little  doubt  but  that  in  a  calmer 
mood  he  regretted  it.     Here  again  Washington's 
serene   wisdom   appeared,  as   it  appeared   in  so 
many  other  decisive  moments.     He  did  not  ap 
prove  of  Steuben's  aims,  but  he  appreciated  his 
services   at   their  full   value,    and   continued   to 
treat  him   with  his  wonted  urbanity,  freely  ac 
knowledging  how  much  he  had  done,  but  care 
fully  abstaining  from  everything  that  might  have 
been  interpreted   into  an  encouragement   of   his 
new  pretensions.     It  was  with    Congress  to  de 
cide  what  the  inspectorship  was  to  be  and  what 
place  the  inspector  was  to  hold  in  the  line ;  and 
it  is  not   improbable   that  Washington  saw  the 
discontented  and  more  than  half  angry  baron  set 
out  for  Philadelphia,  with  confidence  that  before 
that  dilatory  Congress  could  come  to  a  decision, 
his  natural  good  sense  and  love  of  his  profession 


STEUBEN.  57 

would   prepare   him  to  return  willingly,  if   not 
cheerfully,  to  his  original  position. 

For  Congress  was  once  more  sitting  in  Phila- 
'delphia,  in  the  old  hall  where  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  had  been  made.  But  it  was  there 
with  a'task  to  perform,  to  which  legislative  bodies 
are  altogether  unequal:  with  a  responsibility 
weighing  upon  it  which  none  but  a  strong  execu 
tive  could  have  borne,  vainly  trying  to  govern  by 
treasury  boards  and  boards  of  war,  to  call  out 
the  resources  of  the  country  by  requisitions  and  rec 
ommendations,  and  to  decide  questions  which  de 
manded  immediate  decision  as  they  decided  upon 
laws  and  acts  which  demanded  careful,  full,  and 
deliberate  discussion.  It  was  shorn  also  of  some 
of  its  brightest  ornaments,  disturbed  by  internal 
dissensions  which  it  no  longer  had  the  self-con 
trol  to  conceal,  and  brought  to  its  discussions  a 
spirit  poisoned  by  jealousy  of  the  army  on  which 
it  depended  for  its  existence. 

It  was  to  this  Congress  that  Steuben  brought 
his  claims,  and  if  Washington  had  counted  upon 
their  dilatoriness  for  giving  the  baron's  anger 
time  to  cool  or  to  turn  towards  a  new  object,  he 
did  not  count  in  vain.  One  important  question 
was  decided  at  once  :  De  Neuville  was  made  re 
sponsible  to  the  inspector-general,  thus  soothing 
the  German,  whose  value  was  felt,  and  inviting  / 
to  resignation  the  Frenchman,  whose  value  was  » 


58  STEUBEN. 

doubted.  This  made  it  easier  to  meet  his  appli 
cation  for  a  command  in  the  line,  and,  appoint 
ing  a  committee  to  consider  the  new  plans  con-1 
cerning  the  inspectorship,  Congress  seemed  ready 
to  proceed  at  once  to  the  discussion  of  them.  But 
before  any  decision  could  be  reached,  the  unfa 
vorable  turn  which  things  were  taking  in  Rhode 
Island  afforded  an  opportunity  for  postponing  the 
matter  indefinitely,  and  Steuben  was  requested  to 
go  to  the  assistance  of  General  Sullivan.  Thus 
by  the  end  of  August,  Sullivan's  expedition  be 
ing  ended  before  he  could  reach  him,  although 
he  traveled  with  the  utmost  dispatch,  he  again 
found  himself  with  the  main  army.  When  the 
army  removed  to  Fredericksburg  he  was  once  more 
actively  engaged  in  the  dull  routine  of  manoeuvres, 
drills,  and  reports. 

He  seems  meanwhile  to  have  become  convinced 
that  this  was  the  field  in  which  he  could  do  the 
most  good,  and,  with  the  exception  of  an  occa 
sional  return  of  his  longing  for  a  more  dazzling 
glory,  he  resolved  henceforth  to  content  himself 
with  the  glory  of  being  useful.  To  induce  Con 
gress  to  place  his  department  upon  a  permanent 
footing  was  henceforth  his  immediate  object ;  and 
when  the  army  went  into  winter  quarters  he  again 
repaired  to  Philadelphia.  It  was  an  irritating 
business  for  a  hot-tempered,  earnest  man,  con 
vinced  of  the  correctness  of  his  views,  convinced, 


STEUBEN.  59 

too,  that  important  as  many  other  things  which 
Congress  was  busy  about  might  be,  there  was 
none  in  the  wide  circle  of  their  competency  more 
important  than  this.  All  Washington's  influence, 
all  the  force  of  Hamilton's  representations,  were 
employed  in  his  favor :  but  still  week  after  week 
wore  away,  and  February,  1779,  was  near  its  end 
before  the  question  was  seriously  taken  up.  Then 
at  last  a  series  of  resolutions  embodying  nearly 
the  substance  of  his  later  plans,  as  revised  and 
approved  by  Washington,  was  passed,  and,  much 
as  they  fell  short  of  his  original  expectations, 
he  was  glad  to  find  himself  in  a  position  to  set 
himself  effectively  to  work. 

But  he  had  not  idled  away  the  winter  in  at 
tendance  upon  Congress.  To  make  his  inspector 
ship  successful  it  was  necessary  that  every  officer 
should  be  provided  with  a  uniform  system  of  reg 
ulations  for  the  order  and  discipline  of  the  troops. 
He  had  congratulated  himself  at  the  outset  that 
no  existing  work  had  attained  to  a  sufficient  de 
gree  of  popularity  to  make  it  a  general  standard.1 
i  The  military  bibliography  of  that  period  is  briefly  given  by 
Washington  in  a  letter  to  a  young  officer.  Bland  (the  new 
est  edition)  stands  foremost;  also  an  Essay  on  the  Art  of  War  : 
Instructions  for  Officers,  lately  published  at  Philadelphia.  The 
Partisan,  Young  and  others.  Sparks,  Writings  of  Washington, 
iii.  154.  Among  General  Greene's  books  is  a  New  System  of 
Military  Discipline  by  a  General  Officer,  published  by  K.  Ait- 
ken,  printer  and  book-seller,  Philadelphia,  1776,  with  an  ap 
pendix  containing  nine  sections  of  "  rules,  maxims,  etc.,"  some  of 


60  STEUBEN. 

He  had  found  every  colonel,  almost  every  cap 
tain,  with  a  system  of  his  own,  and  agreeing  only 
in  inarching  their  men  in  Indian  file.  The  ground, 
therefore,  was  free,  and  to  fill  it  aright  he  com 
posed  that  volume  so  long  known  in  the  army 
of  the  United  States  as  "  Steuben's  Regulations,"  \// 
or  the  "  Blue  Book."  And  here  again  we  see  his 
superiority  over  mere  formalists  and  drill  masters. 
With  a  thorough  knowledge  of  all  that  had  been 
done,  he  knew  also  what  it  was  possible  to  do.  * 
Fully  aware  that  in  European  armies  a  man  who 
had  been  drilled  three  months  was  still  held  to 
be  nothing  more  than  a  recruit,  he  was  equally 
aware  that  in  the  American  army  he  could  not 
count  upon  more  than  two  months  for  transform 
ing  a  recruit  into  a  soldier. J  Accordingly,  taking 
less  the  Prussian  system  than  his  own  perfect 
familiarity  with  the  subject  for  guide,  and  with 
a  wise  consideration  for  the  English  prejudices 
which  had  struck  such  deep  root  in  the  American 
mind,  he  set  himself  to  his  task,  with  Fleury  and 
Walker  for  assistants,  De  1'Enfant  for  draughts 
man,  and  Duponceau  for  secretary.  On  the  25th  v 
of  March  the  first  part  was  ready  for  the  action 
of  Congress,  having  already  received  the  sanc- 

the  most  brilliant  of  which  are  "  Nothing  but  principle  can  con 
duct  a  man  through  life;"  "Bad  habits  are  more  difficult  to 
correct  than  to  prevent;"  "  The  mind  must  be  prepared  before 
it  can  receive ; " ' "  That  attack  has  least  effect  which  is  most 
obstructed,"  etc.,  etc. 


STEUBEN.  61 

tion  of  Washington  and  of  the  board  of  war. 
On  the  29th,  Congress  resolved  to  accept  and 
print  it. 

Here,  again,  Steuben's  patience  was  put  to  a 
severe  test.  The  printing  of  his  book  cost  him 
more  oaths  than  the  composing  of  it.  There  were 
but  two  copper-plate  printers  in  Philadelphia,  and 
one  of  them  so  bad  that  it  was  found  necessary  / 

to  throw  away  above  six  hundred  prints.  Only 
one  binder  was  employed,  and  though  a  good  one, 
the  attractions  of  privateering  were  so  great  that 
neither  he  nor  the  printer  could  keep  men  enough 
together  to  do  half  the  work  they  were  called  upon 
to  do.  Steuben  was  anxious  to  have  two  copies 
richly  bound,  one  foi  the  commander-in-chief, 
and  one  for  the  French  minister,  but  in  the  whole 
city  there  was  not  gold  leaf  enough  to  gild  them. 
His  temper  failed  him  more  than  once,  but  for 
tunately  the  men  he  had  chiefly  to  do  with  were 
Pickering  and  Peters,  who  admired  and  loved 
him  too  much  to  take  offense  at  his  sallies.  Pick 
ering  in  one  of  his  letters  enters  into  a  full  ex 
planation  of  the  causes  of  delay,  and  closes  with 
a  delicate  appeal  to  Steuben's  better  feelings  : 
"  Should  I  again  discover  marks  of  extreme  im 
patience  and  even  asperity  in  the  inspector-gen 
eral,  I  will  impute  them  to  his  anxiety  to  intro 
duce  a  perfect  order  and  discipline  in  the  army, 
and  to  his  zeal  in  securing  the  safety  and  inde- 


62  STEUBEN. 

pendence  of  America."  Peters  writes  with  a 
happy  mixture  of  jest  and  gravity,  promising 
u  to  distinguish  between  the  Baron  Steuben  unin 
formed,  and  the  Baron  Steuben  acquainted  with 
facts  and  difficulties ;  between  the  Baron  Steuben 
in  good  humor  and  the  same  gentleman  (zoon- 
ically)  angry  and  fretted." 

At  last  the  work  was  done  ;  copies  were  sent  to 
governors  of  States  and  distributed  through  the 
army,  and  for  the  first  time  since  the  war  be 
gan  American  officers  had  a  clear  and  definite 
guide  for  the  performance  of  their  duties. 

"  Steuben  made  no  delay  in  putting  his  the 
ories  into  practice.  He  reviewed  all  the  regi-  / 
ments  and  ordered  the  introduction  of  the  system 
of  manoeuvres  contained  in  the  '  Regulations.'  ' 
Regiments  were  formed  into  battalions,  each  bat 
talion  consisting  of  a  definite  number  of  men.  To  J 
make  sure  that  the  arms  and  equipments  were  fit 
for  immediate  use,  and  that  the  men  were  not 
merely  men  on  paper  but  actually  in  the  ranks, 
he  continued  his  rigorously  ""t-lll ^inspections. 
In  these  inspections  There  was  notritimg^  no 
hurrying  over  details.  Seven  hours  were  not 
thought  too  long  for  the  inspection  of  a  brigade  of 
three  small  regiments.  "  Every  man  not  present 
was  to  be  accounted  for  ;  if  in  camp,  sick  or  well, 
he  was  produced  or  visited  ;  every  musket  han 
dled  and  searched,  cartridge-boxes  opened,  even 


STEUBEN.  63 

the  flints  and  cartridges  counted ;  knapsacks  un- 
slung  and  every  article  of  clothing  spread  on  the 
soldier's  blanket. .and  tested  by  his  little  book, 
whether  what  he  had  received  from  the  United 
States  within  the  year  was  there ;  if  not,  to  be 
accounted  for.  Hospitals,  stores,  laboratories, 
every  place,  every  thing  was  open  to  inspection 
and  inspected."  The  exact,  careful  man  was  sure 
to  be  praised  and  often  rewarded  ;  the  careless 
to  be  sternly  reproved.  It  took  little  to  move 
Steuben's  anger ;  undue  delay,  misplaced  hesi 
tation  were  sure  to  do  it,  and  out  came  a  storm  of 
oaths,  German  first,  then  French,  and  then  both 
ludicrously  mingled  ;  and  when  the  stock  was  ex 
hausted,  turning  to  his  aid,  he  would  say,  "  My 
dear  Walker,  or  my  dear  Duponceau,  come  and 
swear  for  me  in  English  ;  these  fellows  will  not  do 
what  I  bid  them."  A  smile  would  steal  silently 
over  the  faces  of  the  men,  and  the  movement  be 
carefully  studied  till  it  was  accurately  executed. 

The  crowning  labor  and  complement  of  all  was 
the  establishment  of  a  system  of  minute  written 
reports  according  to  prescribed  forms,  extending 
throughout  the  whole  army  and  embracing  'every 
department  of  the  service. 

In  all  this  work  Steuben  was  but  adapting 
established  principles  to  the  exigencies  of  a  new 
case.  But  in  the  formation  of  the  light  infantry 
he  became  an  inventor,  sending  back  a  lesson 


64  STEUBEN. 

from  the  New  World  to  the  Old,  from  Frederick's 
pupil  to  Frederick  himself.  The  wars  with  the 
Indians  had  taught  Americans  to  fight,  like  their 
adversaries,  in  loose  bodies  instead  of  close  masses, 
each  man  using  his  rifle  or  musket  to  the  best 
advantage  according  to  his  own  judgment.  These 
bodies  of  skirmishers  had  turned  the  day  against 
English  and  German  regulars  at  Bemis's  Heights 
and  Stillwater.  Steuben  organized  them  into  a 
light  infantry  with  a  drill  and  discipline  of  their 
own.  Frederick,  meditating  upon  the  suggestions 
of  the  American  war,  saw  how  much  such  troops 
might  be  made  to  assist  the  operations  of  his  dense 
masses,  and  accepted  the  improvement.  The 
other  armies  of  Europe  followed  his  example,  and 
from  that  time  they  have  formed  an  essential  part 
of  every  great  army  and  done  important  service 
on  every  great  battle-field. 

It  was  soon  evident  that  a  new  spirit  had  en 
tered  the  army.  Encampments  exhibited  the 
regularity  of  scientific  disposition.  Reviews  dis 
played  in  officers  and  men  familiarity  with  com 
plex  evolutions  and  that  harmony  of  movement 
which  gives  thousands  the  appearance  of  a  single 
body  under  the  control  of  a  single  will.  Inspec 
tions  demonstrated  the  possibility  of  enforcing 
neatness  and  exactness  and  bringing  responsibility 
home  to  every  door.  The  treasury,  which  had 
been  repeatedly  called  upon  to  pay  the  services 


STEUBEN.  65 

of  men  who  had  long  ceased  to  render  service  of 
any  kind,  was  relieved  from  a  heavy  burden  by 
the  introduction  of  exact  rolls  and  regular  reports. 
The  war  office,  instead  of  having  to  count  upon 
an  annual  loss  of  from  five  to  eight  thousand 
muskets,  could  enter  upon  its  record  that  in  one 
year  of  Steuben's  inspectorship  only  three  mus-  ,/ 
kets  were  missing,  and  they  were  accounted  for. 
The  opposition  and  jealousy  which  had  clogged 
his  first  steps,  gradually  gave  way  before  the 
perfect  demonstration  of  his  success.  Officers 
ceased  to  shrink  from  labor  with  the  example  of 
industry  like  his  before  them,  or  to  consider  any 
part  of  their  duty  as  beneath  them  when  they 
saw  him  come  down  from  so  much  greater  a 
height  to  do  it.  "  Do  you  see  there,  sir,  your  / 
colonel  instructing  that  recruit?"  he  one  day 
said  to  North.  "  I  thank  God  for  that,  sir." 

And  no  sooner  did  the  soldier  find  himself  in 
the  presence  of  the  enemy  than  he  showed  even 
more  evidently  the  change  which  had  taken  place 
within  him.  Hamilton  declared  that  till  he  saw 
the  troops  forming  and  manoeuvring  at  Mon- 
mouth  he  had  never  felt  the  full  value  of  disci 
pline.  The  only  use  which  the  few  soldiers  who 
were  provided  with  bayonets  had  hitherto  made 
of  them,  had  been  as  forks  to  roast  their  meafc 
with.  But  within  less  than  four  months  from 
the  organization  of  the  inspectorship  by  Con-  * 


66  STEUBEN. 

gress,  on  the  night  of  the  15th  of  July,  1779, 
these  same  soldiers  took  Stony  Point,  at  the  point 
of  the  bayonet  and  without  firing  a  gun. 

Henceforth  Steuben's  life  becomes  so  mixed  up 
with  the  general  history  of  the  army,  or  so  filled 
with  minute  details,  that  it  is  impossible  to  follow 
it  step  by  step,  within  limits  like  ours.  It  was 
not  all  at  once  that  he  could  carry  out  his  far- 
reaching  views.  The  army  was  once  more  to  be 
remodeled,  and  he  passed  weeks  at  Philadelphia 
in  close  communication  with  Congress  and  the 
board  of  war,  keeping  up  all  the  time  a  corre 
spondence  with  Washington,  to  whose  wishes, 
from  first  to  last,  he  was  ever  ready  to  conform 
his  own.  But  Congress  again  wearied  and  vexed 
him  by  delays,  for  which  the  embarrassed  condi 
tion  of  the  public  finances  was  but  a  partial  justi 
fication,  and  which  caused,  at  times,  "  the  loss  of 
months  where  it  was  dangerous  to  lose  days." 
Private  jealousies  and  personal  claims  still  contin 
ued  to  interfere  with  the  introduction  of  essential 
changes.  They  who  have  studied  the  history  of 
this  period  in  the  letters  of  the  actors,  know  that 
not  all  our  statesmen  were  wise,  not  all  our  offi 
cers  high-minded,  not  all  our  citizens  more  de 
voted  to  their  country  than  to  their  own  pockets. 
There  were  times  when  the  whole  country  seemed 
heartily  sick  of  the  war ;  and  when,  perhaps,  a 
Wood  or  a  Seymour,  a  "  New  York  World  "  or 


STEUBEN.  67 

an  "  Evening  Express,"  might  have  stirred  up 
thousands  to  open  resistance  or  lured  them  on  to 
treason  to  their  children  and  their  God.  For  a 
time,  too,  the  condition  of  our  finances  seemed 
hopeless.  The  currency  was  worthless  ;  the  pub 
lic  credit  gone.  The  "  promise  to  pay  "  of  the 
United  States  or  of  the  individual  States  was  not 
worth  the  "promise  to  pay  "  of  a  private  citi 
zen  ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  treasury  board  had 
been  replaced  by  a  skillful  financier  that  the  real 
wealth  of  the  country  could  be  brought  to  the 
support  of  its  real  interest.  In  his  personal  as 
well  as  in  his  public  capacity,  Steuben  suffered 
from  these  things.  But  he  suffered  without  los 
ing  heart  if  he  sometimes  lost  patience ;  and  be 
fore  the  war  was  brought  to  a  close  he  had  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  himself  recognized  as  the 
true  organizer  of  the  American  army. 

Meanwhile  he  rendered  other  important  serv 
ices.  He  accompanied  Reed  in  his  survey  of  the 
fortifications  of  Philadelphia.  He  took  an  impor 
tant  part  in  the  movements  which  preceded  the 
battle  of  Monmouth  as  well  as  in  the  battle  it 
self.  He  rendered  valuable  service  on  Washing 
ton's  staff  —  the  best  staff  in  many  respects  which 
the  world  had  ever  seen.  He  wrote  elaborate 
opinions  and  plans  of  operations  which  contrib 
uted  much  to  Washington's  assistance  in  forming 
his  own  opinions  and  plans.  Some  minor  services, 


68  STEUBEN. 

too,  he  performed.  He  taught  the  etiquette  of 
receptions  and  intercourse,  when  the  new  French 
minister  visited  camp,  and  trifling  as  such  cares 
may  appear  when  compared  with  the  grave  duties 
of  a  general  in  the  midst  of  such  a  war,  they 
cease  to  be  trifling  when  we  consider  how  im 
portant  it  was  that  the  minister's  dispatches 
should  represent  us  as  not  wholly  devoid  of  a 
knowledge  which  the  Old  World  prized  so  highly. 
He  did  service,  twice,  of  a  more  difficult  nature, 
when  he  was  sent  without  any  ostensible  com 
mand  to  supply  at  West  Point  the  deficiencies  of 
General  Howe ;  and  of  a  more  serious  nature  when, 
under  the  presidency  of  Greene,  and  with  some  of 
the  best  officers  in  the  army  for  his  colleagues,  he 
sat  in  judgment  upon  Andre*.  And  in  all  these 
various  duties  he  demeaned  himself  so  wisely,  so 
tempered  and  controlled  his  ardent  nature,  and 
manifested  throughout  such  elevation  of  sentiment 
and  such  pure  devotion  to  his  adopted  coun 
try,  as  to  prove  that  Pickering  had  interpreted 
his  character  well,  when  in  the  midst  of  his  per 
plexities  he  wrote  to  him,  "  Courage,  dear  baron  ; 
those  talents  which  know  how  to  do  good  without 
giving  umbrage  and  causing  jealousy  are  always 
sure  to  triumph  ultimately  over  all  obstacles."  . 
But  next  to  the  inspectorship,  the  field  of  his  J 
most  important  services  was  Virginia,  in  the 
winter  of  1780-81,  and  during  the  memorable 


STEUBEN.  69 

and  decisive  siege  of  Yorktown.  When  Greene 
was  appointed  to  the  command  of  such  fragments 
of  the  southern  army  as  had  survived  the  fatal 
day  of  Camden,  Steuben  went  with  him  because 
there  was  "  an  army  to  be  created."  With  Greene 
his  relations  had  been  of  the  friendliest  and  most 
intimate  kind,  from  the  day  when  they  sat  down 
with  Hamilton  and  Laurens,  in  Steuben's  strait 
ened  quarters  at  Valley  Forge,  to  discuss  the  first 
draft  of  the  inspectorship.  And  now  they  set  out 
from  Philadelphia  together  for  the  field  on  which 
they  both  felt  that  the  fate  of  the  war  was  to  be 
decided,  riding  the  whole  of  the  first  day's  jour 
ney  in  company  ;  and  how  pleasantly  they  jour 
neyed  on  and  how  confidentially  they  talked, 
Duponceau  in  his  old  age  dearly  loved  to  tell ;  re 
calling  with  special  satisfaction  the  evening  at 
Chester,  where  Greene,  to  his  astonishment,  turned 
the  conversation  upon  the  Latin  poets,  and  talked 
about  them  like  a  man  who  had  studied  them  well. 
Greene's  chief  reliance  for  men  and  supplies 
was  Virginia,  and  as  it  was  by  the  organization 
of  the  means  of  reinforcement  and  support  that 
the  serious  work  was  to  begin,  he  directed  Steu 
ben  to  take  command  there  and  do  whatever  his 
judgment  suggested  for  the  accomplishment  of  it. 
And  thus  the  pupil  of  the  Prussian  despot  was 
brought  into  contact  with  the  American  demo 
crat,  for  Jefferson  was  then  governor  of  the 


70  STEUBEN. 

State,  and  governing  in  a  way  which  has  afforded 
his  adversaries  an  ample  field  of  crimination,  and 
cost  his  eulogistic  biographers  much  labor  to  de 
fend.  The  disorder  of  the  finances  was  great, 
but,  being  an  evil  common  to  the  whole  country, 
cannot  be  accepted  as  an  excuse  for  the  utter 
prostration  of  the  government.  The  departments  fc 
were  without  a  head.  The  executive  acted  only 
by  expedients.  The  resources  were  wantonly 
wasted  by  neglect  and  peculation.  The  public 
arms  were  scattered;  the  soldiers  and  recruits 
naked.  The  militia  were  so  thoroughly  demoral 
ized  that  they  plundered  with  a  wantonness  that 
would  have  excited  wonder  in  hirelings.  A 
body  of  volunteers  had  been  raised  at  great  ex 
pense  for  six  months'  service.  Before  they  were 
all  collected  the  time  was  so  nearly  run  out  that 
it  was  thought  better  to  dismiss  them  at  once 
than  to  send  them  to  the  support  of  the  southern 
army.  Other  corps  were  raised  with  the  same 
shortsightedness,  and  dismissed  to  save  the  ex 
pense  of  feeding  them.  How  far  a  vigorous  ex 
ecutive  might  have  prevented  these  abuses  and 
errors,  and  how  far  it  became  a  party  to  them  by 
retaining  a  hopeless  position,  we  shall  not  now 
pause  to  inquire. 

That  in  this  situation  Steuben  should  have 
often  lost  his  temper  is  easily  conceived;  that 
he  should  sometimes  have  strained  his  authority 


STEUBEN.  71 

to  the  utmost  was  perfectly  natural.     His  mili 
tary  eye  saw  that  the  fate  of  Virginia  was  bound 
up  with  that  of  the  Carolinas,  and  that  the  surest 
way  to  defend  her  was  to  strengthen  Greene's 
army.     The  militia  that  refused  to  follow  the 
southern  commander  beyond  Ramsay's  Mills,  be 
cause,  unless  they  set  out  for  home  immediately, 
the  time  they  were  called  out  for  would  expire  be 
fore  they  could  reach  it,  might  have  enabled  him 
to  overtake  the  retreating  and  disheartened  en 
emy,  follow  up  the  blow  which  had  almost  shat 
tered  Cornwallis  at  Guilford,  and  avert  the  in 
vasion  which  cost  Virginia  some  blood  and  much 
treasure.     In  spite  of  obstacles  Steuben  persisted 
in  his  labors.    It  was  by  his  energy  and  judgment 
that  Arnold's  invasion  was  so  far  checked  that 
the  traitor  was  able  to  accomplish  but  a  part  of 
the  evil  he  had  meditated.     It  was  to  him,  also, 
that  part  of  Lafayette's  success  was  owing ;  the 
old  general  having  prepared  the  way  which  the 
young  general  followed  so  happily.      But  still, 
of  all  his  hard  experience  of  life,  this  was  the 
hardest ;  and  it  was  with  an  indescribable  feeling 
of  relief  that  he  found  himself  in  the  lines  before 
Yorktown. 

His  first  siege  had  been  the  siege  of  Prague,  as 
a  volunteer,  when  a  boy  of  fourteen  ;  his  last  the 
siege  of  Schweidnitz,  as  Frederick's  aid,  at  the 
close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  And  now,  in  the 


72  STEUBEN. 

trenches  at  Yorktown,  he  saw  another  great  war 
drawing  rapidly  to  its  end,  and  bringing  with  it        / 
the  end  of  his  own  long  and  honorable  military      / 
career.     He  was  the  only  American  officer  who     t 
had  ever  been  present  at  a  siege,  and  here,  as  on 
so  many  occasions,  his  experience  was   of  great 
service.     It  was  the  only  time,  too,  that  he  had 
ever  had  the  command  of  a  division,  and  fortune 
so  far  smiled  upon  him  as  to  bring  on  the  first 
overtures  for  surrender  during  his  term  of  duty 
in  the  trenches ;  thus  giving  him  the  privilege, 
so  highly  prized  by  soldiers,  of  being  in  actual 
command  when  the  enemy's  flag  came  down. 

When  the  victorious  army  returned  northward 
he  returned  with  it,  to  resume  his  place  as  inspec 
tor-general;    a  minute,  laborious,  and  for  most 
men  a  wearisome  round  of  monotonous  duties,  but 
which,  under  the  influence  of  the  spirit  which  he 
brought  to  it,  was  now  universally  recognized  as 
the  indispensable  basis  of  good  military  organiza 
tion.    Never  was  the  discipline  of  the  troops  more  , 
perfect  than  during  the  last  two  years  of  the  war ;  \ 
and  it  is  surely  not  claiming  too  much  for  Steuben 
to  say  that  the  sense  of  duty  and  subordination      J 
which  that  discipline  cultivated  was  not  the  least 
among   the  causes  which  enabled  an  impotent  , 
Congress  peacefully  to  disband  an  injured  and  ^ 
irritated  army.     Authentic  anecdotes  have  been 
preserved  of  the  pride  which  he  took  in  showing 


STEUBEN.  73 

off  to  the  best  advantage  the  acquisitions  of  his 
military  children,  and  of  the  confidence  with 
which  they  came  to  look  up  to  him  as  a  father. 
One  of  the  reviews  at  Verplanck's  Point  was 
roughly  sketched  by  North.  If  we  imagine 
Washington's  marquee  on  an  eminence,  with  the 
richly  wooded  scenery  of  the  North  River  for  a 
background;  Washington  himself  standing  be 
fore  it,  surrounded  by  French  and  American  offi 
cers ;  in  the  foreground  Steuben,  on  horseback, 
with  a  glow  of  triumph  in  his  hazel  eye  as  he 
watches  with  proud  bearing  the  evolutions  which 
it  was  supposed  none  but  a  Prussian  army  could 
execute,  and  the  Hudson  girding  in  the  scene  and 
partly  reflecting  it  in  its  dark  waters,  we  shall 
have  a  noble  subject  for  a  painter. 

Steuben's  last  public  service  during  the  war  / 
was  a  journey  to  Canada  to  make  arrangements*/ 
for  taking  possession  of  the  military  posts  which 
were  to  be  ceded  to  us  at  the  signing  of  the 
peace ;  a  service  for  which  his  familiarity  with 
the  laws  and  usages  of  war  peculiarly  fitted  him. 
Another  service  which  he  rendered  was  in  the 
formation  of  plans  for  a  military  academy  ;  and 
we  commend  to  the  attention  of  those  whose 
duty  it  is  to  watch  over  our  great  institution  at 
West  Point  a  careful  meditation  of  that  part  of 
his  project  in  which  he  provides  for  full  profes 
sorships  of  history  and  geography,  of  civil  and  in- 


74  STEUBEN. 

ternational  law,  and  of  eloquence  and  belles-let 
tres.  It  was  probably  from  him,  too,  that  the 
first  suggestion  of  the  "  Cincinnati "  came,  and, 
had  his  counsels  been  followed,  the  disbanding  of 
the  army,  instead  of  being  done  stealthily,  like 
something  that  Congress  was  afraid  to  do,  would 
have  been  done  in  the  broad  daylight  with  the 
solemnity  with  which  a  great  people  performs  a 
great  duty. 

And  now,  the  war  being  at  an  end,  he  would 
gladly  have  gone  back  to  Europe  to  enjoy  his 
glory  and  talk  over  his  American  life  with  his  old 
friends.  But  in  coming  to  America  he  had  trans 
ferred  his  benefice  of  Havelsberg  to  a  nephew, 
and  exhausted  all  his  other  resources  ;  freely  ex 
changing  the  independence  which  he  had  won  by 
long  service  for  the  chances  of  success  in  the  new 
cause  to  which  he  devoted  himself.  Unfortunately, 
however,  instead  of  following  Vergennes'  advice 
and  Lee's  example,  and  making  a  definite  con 
tract  with  Congress,  he  had  contented  himself 
with  their  unrecorded  acquiescence  in  his  offer 
to  make  his  compensation  depend  upon  the  suc 
cess  of  the  war.  And  thus,  when  the  war  had 
succeeded  and  he  asked  for  a  settlement  of  his 
claims,  Congress  asked  for  the  proof  of  his  con 
tract  ;  and  although  unquestionable  proof  of  the 
nature  of  his  original  agreement  with  the  Con 
gress  committee  was  given  by  the  members  of 


STEUBEN.  75 

that  committee,  although  the  importance  of  his 
services  was  established  by  the  testimony  of 
the  whole  army,  although  Hamilton  supported 
his  claims  in  Congress  and  out  of  Congress,  and 
Washington  went  in  his  favor  to  the  utmost  ex 
tent  which  the  limits  he  had  prescribed  to  him 
self  in  his  relations  with  Congress  permitted,  it 
was  not  till  after  an  eight  years'  struggle  with 
poverty  that  Steuben  obtained  a  final  settlement. 
Then,  indeed,  his  claims  were  partly,  if  not  fully 
acknowledged,  and  an  annuity  of  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars  settled  upon  him.  How  he  suf-  J 
fered  meanwhile,  he,  the  large-hearted,  free 
handed,  high-spirited  man,  from  personal  pri 
vations  and  public  insult ;  how  he  suffered,  not 
merely  from  the  actual  want  of  the  day,  but  from 
the  ever  present  menace  of  the  morrow,  and, 
keenest  pang  of  all  for  a  heart  like  his,  from  the 
inability  to  relieve  the  sufferings  of  others,  is  a 
story  which  fortunately  our  limits  do  not  permit 
us  to  repeat.  We  commend  it  to  the  serious  at 
tention  of  our  readers  in  the  clear,  minute,  and 
incontrovertible  narrative  of  Mr.  Kapp. 

During  this  interval  most  of  his  time  was 
passed  in  New  York,  where  his  extensive  informa 
tion,  refined  manners,  and  genial  sympathies  made 
him  a  general  favorite.  Disqualified  by  his  age 
from  entering  upon  a  new  profession,  he  could  not 
settle  contentedly  down  in  idleness,  or  see  the  new 


76  STEUBEN. 

republic,  which  he  had  helped  build  up,  silently 
drifting  into  anarchy  and  bankruptcy,  without 
a  strong  desire  to  see  what  lessons  might  be 
drawn  from  history  for  his  instruction.  His 
papers  bear  witness  to  the  interest  which  he  took 
in  the  political  occurrences  and  questions  of  the 
day,  as  well  as  to  the  extent  of  his  reading  and 
his  habit  of  patient  thought.  Like  most  of  those 
who  had  been  brought  into  close  relations  with 
the  Congress  of  the  confederation,  he  was  the 
advocate  of  a  strong  and  effective  central  gov 
ernment,  and,  had  he  lived,  would  have  witnessed 
the  overthrow  of  the  federalists  with  as  keen 
regret  as  Hamilton  himself.  Among  his  studies 
of  this  period  is  a  plan  for  a  peace  establishment 
of  the  army  which  Washington  approved,  and  a 
few  years  later  he  proposed  a  plan  of  fortifica 
tions  for  New  York  which  became  the  basis  of 
the  plan  adopted  upon  the  approach  of  our  sec 
ond  war  with  England.  At  one  moment,  de 
spairing  of  obtaining  a  settlement  with  Congress, 
he  turned  his  thoughts  westward  and  drew  up  a 
plan  for  the  establishment,  with  the  sanction  of 
the  Spanish  government,  of  a  colony  in  the  Span 
ish  territories  on  the  Mississippi.  But  Spain 
wanted  no  such  colonists,  and  his  memorial  re 
mained  unanswered.  In  1797  he  was  chosen  one 
of  the  regents  of  the  University  of  New  York ; 
a  tribute  of  respect  which  must  have  been  sin- 


STEUBEN.  17 

gularly  gratifying  to  his  feelings.  A  more  im 
portant  expression  was  given  by  New  York,  Vir 
ginia,  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Jersey,  to  their 
sense  of  his  services  by  large  grants  of  land,  and 
could  he  but  have  got  money  enough  to  have 
made  these  grants  available  he  would  have  been 
an  independent  man. 

At  length,  as  we  have  said,  his  claims  upon 
the  nation  were  acknowledged.  Henceforth  he 
had  a  fixed  income,  knew  what  he  could  afford 
to  undertake  and  how  he  could  afford  to  live. 
To  take  up  and  settle  his  lands  would  supply 
a  pleasant  occupation  for  his  declining  years. 
Wherever  an  old  soldier  was  to  be  found  he 
was  sure  to  find  a  friend,  and  as  disappointment 
had  neither  hardened  nor  embittered  his  heart,  it 
was  to  friendship  that  he  looked  for  "happiness." 
It  was  too  late  to  think  of  returning  to  Europe, 
even  if  his  pecuniary  embarrassments  had  per 
mitted  it.  America  was  now  his  home.  And 
thus,  with  such  hopes  as  childless  old  age  may 
indulge  in,  and  such  aspirations  as  had  survived 
thirteen  years  of  active  participation  in  great 
events  and  a  ten  years'  experience  of  court,  he 
entered  upon  the  last  phase  of  his  career. 

The  sixteen  thousand  acres  of  land  which  New 
York  had  given  him  lay  in  Oneida  County,  about 
twelve  miles  north  of  old  Fort  Schuyler,  the 
Utica  of  our  day,  and  formed  part  of  the  town- 


78  STEUBEN. 

ship  which  still  bears  his  name.  It  was  a  rough, 
stony  tract,  fitter  for  grazing  than  planting,  with 
a  high  ridge  running  across  it,  from  which,  as  his 
eye  became  familiar  with  the  landscape,  he  could 
distinguish  the  highlands  of  seven  different  coun 
ties,  and,  gleaming  over  the  tree-tops  on  the  far 
thest  verge  of  the  horizon,  the  bright  waters  of 
Oneida  Lake.  This  was  to  be  his  home  during 
the  active  months  of  the  year,  and  when  the  cold 
months  came  and  armies  went  into  winter  quar 
ters,  he  would  turn  'his  face  southward  and  re 
sume  his  station  at  216  Broadway,  opposite  St. 
Paul's  Church.  As  a  landholder  he  could  in 
dulge  his  generous  impulses,  and  more  than  one 
who  had  no  other  claim  upon  him  than  what 
the  name  of  old  soldier  gave,  received  a  grant 
of  sixty  or  a  hundred  acres,  either  as  a  free  gift 
or  on  terms  that  differed  little  from  it.  As  a 
farmer  he  could  indulge  his  old  habits  of  me 
thodic  organization  and  a  methodic  division  of 
his  time.  Sixty  acres  were  set  apart  and  cleared 
for  the  manor-house,  which  was  to  be  a  building 
suited  to  his  rank  and  habits  of  life.  Meanwhile 
he  contented  himself  with  a  log-house,  enlarged 
after  a  short  time  by  the  addition  of  a  frame- 
house  of  two  rooms.  Here  Mulligan,  then  a 
young  man  fresh  from  Columbia  College,  and 
who  served  him  as  secretary,  was  his  constant 
inmate  ;  North,  or  Walker,  or  some  other  old 


STEUBEN.  79 

companion,  would  often  come  to  stay  a  week  or 
more  with  him,  and  some  of  his  nearer  neighbors, 
the  most  welcome  among  whom  was  a  Dutch 
emigrant  named  Mappa,  a  gentleman  of  distin 
guished  ability  and  high  culture,  loved  to  visit 
him  and  talk  over  the  questions  of  the  day  and 
the  news  from  Europe.  This  news  he  got  from 
the  "  Leyden  Gazette,"  the  "  Galignani's  Mes 
senger  "  of  those  days,  and  inexplicably  strange  it 
seemed  to  him,  at  times,  especially  when  he  read 
therein  that  the  Prussian  eagles  had  turned  back 
in  ignominious  retreat  before  the  tricolored  flag 
of  the  new  republic. 

He  studied  farming  as  he  had  studied  the  art 
of  war,  by  method  and  rule,  entering  everything 
in  his  diary  and  recording  his  progress  step  by 
step.  The  minute  accuracy  of  the  inspector-gen 
eral  pervaded  the  daily  habits  of  the  farmer  in  his 
clearing.  And  never,  perhaps,  even  as  he  rode  his 
war-horse  down  the  line,  looking,  as  one  who  saw 
him  describes  him,  "  like  the  god  of  war  him 
self/'  did  he  feel  a  truer  pleasure  than  when  he 
guided  Molly,  his  quiet  little  mare,  through  the 
stumpy  and  half-worn  paths  of  Steuben.  In  the 
evening  chess  or  a  book  filled  up  the  time  pleas 
antly,  Voltaire  being  one  of  his  chief  favorites, 
and  Gibbon,  whose  great  history  had  soon  found 
its  way  across  the  Atlantic,  coming  in  for  a  share 
of  his  attention.  Of  German  literature,  although 


80  STEUBEN. 

it  had  already  entered  upon  the  brightest  period 
of  its  marvelous  development  and  might  have 
held  out,  at  least  in  the  "Revolt  of  the  Nether 
lands  "  and  the  "  Thirty  Years'  War,"  great  at 
tractions  for  one  who  had  himself  been  an  actor  in 
a  great  revolt  and  a  great  war,  his  biographer 
makes  no  mention,  leaving  us  thereby  to  conclude 
that,  like  Frederick,  he  had  failed  to  comprehend 
this  part  of  the  great  changes  that  were  going  on 
around  him.  And  thus  the  last  four  years  of  his 
life  glided  smoothly  away,  with  little  in  them  to 
recall  Frederick's  camp,  or  the  drawing-rooms  at 
Hechingen,  but  with  something  of  a  grateful 
variety,  and  much  to  awaken  a  placid  interest. 
Loving  much  and  much  beloved,  he  had  reached 
unconsciously,  but  not  unprepared,  the  brink  of 
the  grave. 

His  last  appearance  in  public  was  as  president 
of  the  German  Society,  in  New  York,  when  with 
drums  beating  and  banners  displayed  he  marched 
at  their  head  from  the  Lutheran  school-house  in 
Nassau  Street,  down  Broadway  and  through 
Whitehall,  to  see  them  do  their  voluntary  day's 
work  upon  the  fortifications  of  Governor's  Island. 
His  last  service  to  the  country  was  in  the  summer 
of  1794,  as  president  of  the  board  of  commis 
sioners  for  fortifying  the  northern  and  western 
frontiers  of  the  State  ;  a  work  which  filled  up  the 
whole  summer,  and  was  very  near  ending  in 
capture  by  the  Indians. 


STEUBEN.  81 

The  winter  of  1794  began  early.  In  November 
the  ground  was  already  covered  with  snow.  The 
log-hut  began  to  look  sad  and  lonely  in  the  cold, 
white  landscape.  Little  Molly  could  no  longer 
make  her  way  through  the  clearing.  North's  visit 
was  over.  Mulligan  was  alone  with  him,  with  the 
two  servants.  The  regular  time  for  going  to  New 
York  was  not  quite  come,  but  he  resolved  to  an 
ticipate  it,  and  made  all  his  preparations  for  the 
journey.  The  25th  of  November  came.  There 
was  no  change  in  his  firm  tread,  or  the  clear  ring 
of  his  voice,  or  the  kindly  light  of  his  hazel  eye. 
He  played  his  game  of  chess,  he  listened  while 
Mulligan  read ;  at  eleven,  his  usual  bedtime,  they 
parted  for  the  night.  He  had  been  for  some  years 
a  communicant  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  and  be 
fore  he  laid  his  head  upon  his  pillow,  we  may  well 
believe  that  he  had  bowed  it  in  prayer.  Then 
came  a  few  hours  of  sleep,  and  in  sleep  the  death- 
stroke,  sudden  but  not  instantaneous,  and  made 
bitter  by  great  agony.  His  servant  ran  to  call 
Mulligan.  "  Do  not  be  alarmed,  my  son,"  Steu- 
ben  said,  as  he  saw  his  young  friend  rush  into  the 
room  in  terror.  The  motion  of  the  left  side  was 
gone.  He  asked  to  be  taken  up,  but  returned 
quickly  to  bed  again.  The  agony  continued.  By 
six  he  was  speechless.  It  was  not  till  the  after 
noon  of  the  next  day  that  a  physician  could  be 
procured.  He  was  still  breathing  and,  for  a  while, 


82  STEUBEN. 

sensible.  Remedies  were  applied,  and  with  a  mo 
mentary  gleam  of  hope.  Then  he  became  uncon 
scious,  though  breathing  still.  The  night  wore 
away,  with  occasional  returns  of  convulsions  but 
none  of  consciousness.  The  vigorous  frame  which 
had  borne  up  so  stoutly  against  cold  and  hunger, 
against  sleepless  nights  and  days  of  toil,  strug 
gled  painfully  with  death.  The  faint  breathing 
alone  told  the  weeping  attendants  that  he  was 
yet  alive.  Towards  noon  it  grew  fainter  and 
fainter,  and  at  half  past  twelve  of  the  second  day 
it  ceased. 

North  had  been  sent  for,  but  the  roads  were 
so  bad  that  all  was  over  before  he  arrived.  Mul 
ligan  had  made  most  of  the  preparations  for  the 
funeral,  and  as  the  two  mourners  talked  them 
over,  they  remembered  that  their  friend  had  once 
pointed  out  a  hemlock-tree  on  the  north  of  the 
house  as  a  good  place  to  be  buried  in.  There, 
then,  they  had  a  grave  dug,  although  the  snow 
around  it  melted  and  made  it  hard  to  keep  it 
clear ;  and  thither  on  the  next  day  about  noon, 
the  neighbors,  some  thirty  in  all,  joining  with 
them,  they  bore  him  in  silence  and  laid  him  down 
to  his  rest. 

Alas  that  for  this  wearied  ancl  war-worn  frame 
it  should  not  have  been  the  last  rest !  But  early 
in  the  present  century  the  town,  which  had  out 
grown  the  memory  of  its  highest  honor,  wanted  a 


STEUBEN.  83 

road,  and  the  engineer  who  laid  it  out  ran  it  over 
Steuben's  grave.  The  coffin  was  laid  bare,  re 
maining  exposed  for  some  days  to  idle  gazers  and 
the  chances  of  the  weather.  It  is  even  said,  and 
we  fear  with  too  much  truth,  that  some  one,  a 
little  more  daring  in  sacrilege,  broke  it  open  and 
tore  off  a  piece  of  the  military  cloak.  At  last  the 
shameful  story  reached  the  ears  of  Colonel  Walker, 
who,  hastening  to  the  spot,  had  the  coffin  taken 
up  and  removed  to  a  neighboring  hill-side,  where, 
under  the  shade  of  primeval  trees,  with  fragrant 
flowers  laughing  all  around,  and  within  sound  of  a 
little  brook  whose  waters  chime  sweetly  with  the 
music  of  the  winds  and  the  birds,  a  simple  slab 
still  bears  the  name  of  Steuben. 

And  now^  if  we  undertake  to  assign  him  his 
rank  in  general  history,  although  we  should  hesi 
tate  to  call  him  a  great  man,  we  should  feel  fully 
justified  in  assigning  him  a  prominent  place  among 
eminent  men.  In  all  the  situations  wherein  he 
was  placed  he  rose  above  the  common  level,  and 
that  he  rose  no  higher  must  be  attributed  to  the 
force  of  circumstances  rather  than  to  any  want  on 
his  part  of  the  power  to  rise.  To  have  risen  dur 
ing  the  Seven  Years'  War  from  a  lieutenant  of 
infantry  to  a  responsible  office  on  Frederick's  own 
staff  was  a  surer  mark  of  superiority  than  the 
command  of  a  division  in  any  other  army  of  those 
days.  To  have  adapted  the  improvements  of 


84  STEUBEN. 

Prussian  discipline  to  an  army  of  freemen  fighting 
for  freedom  required  a  fertility  of  resources,  a 
familiarity  with  general  principles,  and  a  knowl 
edge  of  human  nature,  which  none  but  minds  of  a 
high  order  possess.  To  have  done  well  whatever 
he  undertook  to  do  justifies  the  assumption  that 
if  circumstances  had  permitted  him  to  undertake 
more  he  would  still  have  done  it  well.  Yet  his 
methods  were  rather  those  of  laborious  industry 
than  of  that  pervading  power  which  constitutes 
greatness,  or  those  rapid  intuitions  which  consti 
tute  genius.  He  studied,  thought,  elaborated  his 
thoughts,  and  translated  them  into  action.  But 
the  paths  that  he  marked  out  could  all  be  dis 
tinctly  traced  to  a  well-known  starting-point ;  and 
while  you  follow  him  with  implicit  confidence, 
you  feel  nothing  in  your  confidence  of  that  enthu 
siasm  which  was  inspired  by  Napoleon,  or  that 
awe  which  was  inspired  by  Washington.  You 
would  trust,  obey,  admire  him  ;  but  there  would 
be  no  absolute  renunciation  of  self  in  your  trust, 
no  enchaining  of  will  in  your  obedience,  no  over 
whelming  wonder  in  your  admiration.  Men 
looked  up  to  him,  and  justly  ;  but  not  as  they  look 
up  to  those  heights  which  rise  immeasurably  be 
yond  the  reach  of  industry  and  force  of  will.  For 
industry  and  force  of  will  he  possessed  in  a  re 
markable  degree,  combined  with  clearness  of  con 
ception,  steadiness  of  purpose,  and  accuracy  of 


STEUBEN.  85 

thought.  His  mind  was  eminently  sound,  his 
heart  warm,  and  all  through  a  life  of  camps  and 
courts,  overflowing  with  sympathy  and  benevo 
lence.  His  culture  was  drawn  mainly  from  French 
sources,  but  largely  modified  by  strong  German 
instincts,  and  the  habits  of  German  life.  A  few 
years  later  and  he  would  have  been  a  German 
patriot ;  and  it  was  happy  for  him  that,  born  in 
the  age  of  cosmopolitan  civilization,  when  the  sol 
dier  of  fortune  was  free  to  choose  his  banner  and 
held  to  fight  faithfully  for  it  only  as  long  as  he 
remained  under  it,  circumstances  should  have  led 
him,  after  having  won  his  training  in  the  service 
of  a  great  king,  to  apply  it  faithfully  and  honor 
ably  to  the  defense  of  a  new  republic.  , 

In  the  military  history  of  our  Revolution,  if 
we  class  men  according  to  their  services,  no  one 
after  Washington  and  Greene  stands  so  high  as 
Steuben.  For  the  services  which  Lafayette  ren 
dered,  important  as  they  were,  were  rather  the 
effects  of  influence  and  position  than  of  individual 
superiority.  All  that  Steuben  owed  to  position 
was  the  opportunity  of  action  ;  the  action  itself 
was  the  fruit  of  his  own  strong  will  and  thorough 
knowledge  of  his  science.  He  was  the  creator  of 
our  regular  army,  the  organizer  of  our  military 
economy.  The  impress  which  he  made  upon  our 
military  character  remained  there  long  after  his 
hand  was  withdrawn.  The  system  of  drills  and 


86  STEUBEN. 

manoeuvres  which  in  1779  he  drew  up  in  German, 
to  pass  through  bad  French  into  English,  con 
tinued  to  be  the  system  by  which  all  our  regulars 
and  militia  were  formed,  until  new  modifications  J 
had  been  introduced  into  the  art  of  war  by  the  * 
great  wars  of  the  French  Revolution.  Upon  this 
point  the  testimony  of  Washington,  Greene,  Knox, 
Hamilton,  Pickering,  Peters,  is  uniform  and  de 
cisive.  He  claimed  nothing  to  which  his  claim  is 
not  fully  borne  out  by  what  they  wrote  and  said. 
His  system  of  reviews,  reports,  and  inspection 
gave  efficiency  to  the  soldier,  confidence  to  the 
commander,  and  saved  the  treasury  not  less  than 
six  hundred  thousand  dollars. 

The  private  life  of  a  man  so  large  a  portion  of 
whose  life  was  passed  in  the  performance  of  pub 
lic  duties  affords  little  room  for  the  growth  of 
distinctive  characteristics.  There  was  a  slight 
haughtiness  in  his  manner  which  would  appear 
to  have  been  the  reflection  of  his  military  habit  of 
command  rather  than  the  product  of  arrogance  or 
unbecoming  pride  ;  a  manner  which  seemed  to 
say,  I  know  my  own  position  and  worth,  and  ex 
pect  you  to  recognize  them  ;  but  I  am  equally 
ready  to  acknowledge  yours.  His  pride  never 
seems  to  have  degenerated  into  vanity,  that  unbe 
coming  mantle  in  which  so  many  great  men  have 
more  than  half  enveloped  their  greatness,  but  was 
a  soldierly  pride  throughout,  founded  upon  the 


STEUBEN.  87 

consciousness  of  what  he  had  done  and  was  still 
able  to  do.  In  society  he  always  appeared  to  ad 
vantage,  particularly  in  that  test  of  true  refine 
ment,  the  society  of  ladies  ;  and  if  his  bow  savored 
somewhat  of  formality,  his  vein  of  compliment  and 
humor  was  always  happy.  "  Ah,  madam,"  said 
he,  bowing  low,  on  being  presented  to  a  beautiful 
Miss  Sheaf,  and  studiously  mispronouncing  the 
name,  "I  have  always  been  cautioned  to  avoid  J 
mischief,  but  I  never  knew  till  to-day  how  dan 
gerous  she  was." 

Of  his  generosity  innumerable  anecdotes  have 
been  preserved.  Like  Goldsmith,  he  could  not 
withhold  even  the  last  penny  in  his  purse  when 
want  or  suffering  asked  for  it.  How  often  he 
shared  it  with  the  destitute,  how  bitterly  he  felt 
the  ungenerous  conduct  of  Congress  which  made 
it  impossible  for  him  to  give  as  freely  as  his  heart 
would  have  dictated,  how  munificently  he  em 
ployed  his  opportunities  as  a  land-holder  to  pro 
vide  some  old  soldier  with  a  home,  are  things 
which  his  contemporaries  well  knew  and  which 
posterity  should  not  forget. 


GENEKAL  JOHN  KALB. 


Verga  gentil  di  picciola  gramigna. 
The  noble  scion  of  ignoble  seed. 

DANTE,  Purgatorio,  xiv. 


GENEEAL  JOHN  KALB.1 


ON  the  29th  of  June,  1721,  John  Kalb,  the 
child  of  Hans  Kalb  and  Margaret,  his  wife,  peas 
ants,  was  born  in  the  German  town  of  Hiitten- 
dorf.  On  the  19th  of  August,  1780,  Major- 
General  Baron  de  Kalb  died  prisoner  of  war  in 
the  American  town  of  Camden,  of  wounds  re 
ceived  three  days  before,  in  the  defeat  of  the 
American  General  Gates  by  the  English  General 
Cornwallis.  How  and  when  did  this  peasant 
become  a  baron,  and  mingle  his  name  with  great 
historic  names  and  great  historic  events  ?  We 
find  him  at  school  at  Kriegenbronn,  a  peasant 
boy  still.  We  see  him  leave  his  native  place 
at  sixteen  to  earn  his  living  as  a  butler.  We 
lose  sight  of  him  for  six  years,  and  suddenly 

1  Leben  des  Amerikanischen  Generals  Johann  Kalb.  Von 
Friedrich  Kapp,  mit  Kalb's  Portrait.  "  In  deiner  Brust  sind 
deines  Schicksals  Sterne."  —  Schiller.  Stuttgart:  Cotta'  scher 
Verlag.  1862. 

-  The  Life  of  John  Kalb,  Major-General  in  the  Revolutionary 
Army.  By  Friedrich  Kapp.  New  York  :  privately  printed. 
MDCCCLXX. 


92  KALB. 

find  ourselves  face  to  face  with  him  a'gain  to 
wards  the  end  of  1743,  with  the  distinctive  de 
between  the  Jean  and  Kalb  of  his  half  galli- 
cized  name,  and  the  rank  of  lieutenant  in  the 
regiment  of  Lowenthal,  a  body  of  German  infan 
try  in  the  service  of  France.  Had  his  regiment 
been  composed  of  Frenchmen,  it  would  have  been 
easier  to  conceive  how  this  young  Ariovistus,  six 
feet  high,  with  his  searching  brown  eyes,  his  am 
ple  forehead  that  suggested  thought,  his  dis 
tinctly  chiseled  nose  which  like  the  great  Condi's 
suggested  the  beak  of  the  eagle,  the  self-control 
and  quiet  consciousness  of  strength  which  min 
gled  upon  his  lips  somewhat  as  they  did  on  Frank 
lin's,  and  the  aristocratic  double  chin  and  haughty 
mien,  could  have  passed  himself  as  a  noble  in 
times  when  the  herald's  office  was  consulted  less 
than  the  air  and  bearing  of  the  claimant  of  a 
title.  But  it  was  composed  of  Germans,  familiar 
with  the  name  and  grades  of  German  nobility  and 
rigorous  advocates  of  its  privileges.  By  what  arts 
or  by  what  chance  did  our  young  adventurer  suc 
ceed  in  persuading  them  that  he  was  a  noble 
man  ?  How,  too,  did  he,  in  six  short  years,  suc 
ceed  in  transforming  the  obsequious  butler  into 
the  proud  baron  ?  That  he  did  thus  pass  from 
a  peasant  to  a  noble,  and  put  on,  as  though  they 
had  been  his  birthright,  the  air  and  bearing  of 
nobility,  is  a  fact  which  Mr.  Kapp  has  fully  es- 


KALE.  93 

tablished,  although  he  has  not  been  able  to  ex 
plain  it,  "and,  accepting  it  as  one  of  the  secrets 
of  history,  we  pass  directly  with  him  from  the 
peasant's  cottage  to  the  camp  in  Flanders. 

Frederick  of  Prussia,  the  greatest  general  of  his 
own  day,  was  the  teacher  of  Steuben,  the  sub 
ject  of  Mr.  Kapp's  first  contribution  to  American 
history.  Kalb's  teacher  was  Marshal  Saxe,  "the 
prof  essor,"  according  to  Frederick  himself,  "of  all 
the  European  generals  of  his  age."  And  thus 
the  lessons  of  the  two  greatest  soldiers  of  their 
time  passed  through  two  brilliant  adventurers  to 
the  camp  of  Washington.  Both  lives  belong  in 
part  to  the  American  historian.  Toward  the 
end  of  1743,  when  Washington  was  going  to  Mr» 
Williams's  school  at  Brydges  Creek,  and  Greene 
was  a  babe  in  the  arms,  Kalb  comes  into  the  light 
of  history  as  a  lieutenant  in  one  of  the  most  brill 
iant  German  regiments  in  the  service  of  France. 
In  a  single  year  he  took  part  in  three  sieges  and 
one  hotly  contested  battle ;  and  still  following 
the  history  of  his  regiment,  through  which  only 
we  can  trace  his  own,  we  find  him  at  Fontenoy 
and  every  decisive  action  of  the  war  except  the 
battles  of  Lafeld  and  Raucoup.  In  1747  he  was 
made  captain  and  adjutant,  and  was  intrusted 
with  the  important  duties  of  "  officer  of  detail," 
an  office  of  great  responsibility,  comprehending 
the  internal  administration  of  the  regiment  and 


94  KALB. 

an  active  correspondence  with,  the  minister  of 
war.  In  his  brief  intervals  of  leisure  he  found 
time  for  study,  devoting  himself  chiefly  to  mod 
ern  languages  and  those  branches  of  the  higher 
mathematics  which  were  essential  to  the  scien 
tific  departments  of  his  profession. 

The  eighteenth  century,  it  will  be  remem 
bered,  was  still  an  age  of  mercenary  soldiers. 
Men  of  hereditary  rank  let  themselves  out  for 
military  rank  and  the  chances  of  military  dis 
tinction.  To  be  colonel  and  give  your  name  to  a 
regiment  was  to  open  the  way  to  a  new  ribbon  or 
a  new  star  and  the  choicest  circles.  Even  the 
lowest  commission  was  a  patent  of  nobility;  for 
none  were  entitled  to  it  in  the  French  service 
who  could  not  trace  their  claims  through  four 
generations.  The  German  regiments  in  the 
French  service  were  especially  favored,  and  com 
missions  in  them  eagerly  sought  after.  "  There 
is  not  a  general  officer  in  Germany,"  said  Prince 
Ferdinand  of  Brunswick  to  Boisgelin,  "  whatever 
his  nobility,  who  would  not  consider  himself  as 
very  fortunate  in  being  able  to  enter  the  service 
of  France.  What  a  happiness  to  fight  by  the 
side  of  Frenchmen,  and  live  with  them  in  Paris 
durjng  peace  !  " 

The  foreign  regiments  in  the  French  service 
were  not  all  upon  the  same  footing.  Each  had 
its  own  contract,  and  its  own  articles  of  war. 


\Vv 

V  j| 


KALE. 


Questions  of  discipline  were  decided  differently 
in  different  regiments,  one  capitulation  approv 
ing  what  another  condemned.  It  was  the  duty 
of  the  officer  of  detail  to  make  himself  familiar 
with  all  these  distinctions,  and  be  prepared  to 
defend  the  rights  of  his  own  regiment  before  the 
minister  of  war  ;  an  office  of  toil  and  difficulty, 
comprising  the  whole  internal  administration  of 
the  regiment,  from  the  minutest  detail  to  the  most 
difficult  question  of  jurisprudence.  The  colonel 
commanded  in  battle,  but  the  officer  of  detail  con 
ducted  the  correspondence  with  the  minister  of 
war  and  the  commanding  general. 

Such  were  Kalb's  duties  in  the  garrisons  of 
Pfalzburgh  and  Cambrai,  during  the  peace  which 
preceded  the  Seven  Years'  War.  The  records  of 
his  regiment  bear  witness  to  his  intelligence  and 
zeal.  But  war  was  approaching.  While  decid 
ing  the  European  question,  the  treaty  of  Aix  la 
Chapelle  had  left  the  American  question  unde 
cided  ;  and  the  American  question  was  the  ques 
tion  of  the  age,  carrying  with  .it  the  transforma 
tion  of  dependent  colonies  into  the  greatest  of 
republics.  War  with  England  was  inevitable. 
Kalb  looked  to  it  for  honor  and  fortune.  As  a 
first  step  toward  them  he  addressed  a  memorial 
to  the  minister  of  marine,  containing  a  detailed 
plan  for  the  formation  of  a  foreign  regiment  of 
marine  infantry.  Germany,  Denmark,  Sweden, 


:A 


96  KALE. 

England,  and  above  all,  Ireland,  were  to  furnish 
the  men,  who  were  to  be  thoroughly  trained  to 
service  in  different  parts  of  the  world,  and  es 
pecially  to  sudden  landings  on  a  foreign  coast. 
An  invasion  of  England  has  long  been  a  cher 
ished  idea  of  France,  and  that  it  is  not  altogether 
a  vain  idea  may  be  argued  from  the  anxiety, 
amounting  almost  to  terror,  with  which  every  rep 
etition  of  the  menace  has  been  received.  Kalb 
aimed  high,  but  he  aimed  justly.  He  would 
have  made  Irish  discontent  a  source  of  weak 
ness  to  England  and  of  strength  to  France.  But 
he  lacked  court  patronage,  and  failed. 

A  minute  history  of  the  Seven  Years'  Wai- 
would  hardly  bring  the  name  of  Kalb  into  prom 
inence.  He  took  part  in  nearly  all  its  great  battles, 
however,  and  won  the  favor  of  De  Broglie,  the 
best  of  the  French  generals.  But  his  subordinate 
position  kept  him  in  the  shade,  and  his  useful  de 
vices  were  counted  only  as  a  part  of  the  general 
history  of  his  regiment.  The  court  intrigue 
which  removed  the  successful  De  Broglie  in  order 
to  make  room  for  the  incompetent  Soubise,  very 
nearly  deprived  him  of  his  position.  The  peace 
of  1763  found  him  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  rank, 
though  in  fact  only  a  captain  by  purchase  in  the 
regiment  of  Anhalt.  It  gave  him,  however,  an 
opportunity  of  adding  largely  to  his  private  fort 
une,  by  his  successful  advocacy  of  the  claims  of 


KALB.  97 

several  princely  and  noble  families  of  Wetterau 
for  supplies  furnished  the  French  army  during 
the  war. 

The  war  was  over ;  what  was  to  become  of 
those  for  whom  war  was  a  profession  ?  Assistant 
quartermaster-general,  with  the  rank  of  lieuten 
ant-colonel,  Kalb  had  strong  claims  to  promo 
tion  ;  but  none  of  his  hopes  in  this  direction  were 
realized.  Fortunately  the  customs  of  the  age 
had  allowed  him  to  purchase  a  captaincy  in  the 
Anhalt  regiment,  for  one  of  whose  companies  he 
had  been  reported  as  if  in  actual  command  dur 
ing  the  last  three  years  of  the  war.  Upon  this 
he  now  fell  back  for  the  moment,  resolved,  mean 
while,  to  push  his  fortune  in  another  direction. 
He  had  once  before  tried  to  make  his  way  by 
personal  application,  and  had  failed  for  want  of 
protection.  He  was  stronger  now^by  the  friend 
ship  and  protection  of  men  of  rank,  and  for  a 
while  his  hopes  were  high.  Eight  new  staff  offi 
cers  were  to  be  created,  and  the  Marquis  de  Cas 
tries  exerted  himself  to  procure  one  of  the  ap 
pointments  for  him.  But  the  new  creations  were 
not  made.  A  vacant  lieutenant-colonelcy  for  which 
he  had  made  application  was  given  to  another. 
It  was  a  severe  disappointment.  Still,  fortune 
had  not  forsaken  him. 

During  the  administration  of  the  provident  Col 
bert,  a  Hollander,  named  Robin,  skilled  in  the 


KALB. 


manufacture  of  cloth,  had  been  allured  to  France, 
where  his  services  were  rewarded  by  a  patent  of 
nobility.  The  occupation  was  handed  down  from 
father  to  son,  and  at  the  time  of  Kalb's  visit  to 
Paris,  a  grandson  of  the  original  immigrant  was 
living  with  his  wife  upon  the  fruits  of  his  own 
and  his  ancestors'  industry,  in  pleasant  retirement 
at  Courbevoye,  near  Paris.  A  younger  daughter, 
"  accomplished,  sprightly,  and  beautiful,"  lived 
with  them.  How  and  when  Kalb  learnt  to  know 
them,  no  record  tells  ;  but  it  is  easy  to  understand 
how,  as  he  listened  to  her  intelligent  and  sprightly 
conversation  and  looked  upon  her  beautiful  face, 
he  thought  that  with  such  a  being  by  his  side  he 
might  forego  his  commission  ;  and  how,  as  she 
looked  upon  his  noble  form  and  listened  to  his 
tales  of  siege  and  encampment  and  battle-field, 
she  felt  that  his  would  be  a  strong  arm  to  go 
through  life  with.  She  was  betrothed  to  Kalb 
in  the  first  winter  after  the  peace,  and  married  on 
the  10th  of  April,  1764.  They  were  both  Protes 
tants,  and  the  marriage  service  was  performed  in 
the  Protestant  chapel  of  the  Dutch  legation. 

Kalb  was  very  happy.  He  had  never  fallen 
into  the  dissolute  habits  of  his  times  and  profes 
sion.  Temperate  in  all  things  but  the  thirst  of 
glory,  he  sought  happiness  at  his  own  fireside. 
His  wife,  who  had  married  him  because  she  loved 
him,  felt  her  love  increase  as  she  became  more 


KALB.  99 

familiar  with  his  sterling  qualities  of  mind  and 
heart.  An  adventurer  hitherto,  dependent  upon 
his  sword  and  the  protection  of  the  great,  he  was 
now  the  head  of  an  honorable  family  and  the 
master  of  an  independent  fortune.  Money,  like 
other  gifts  of  fortune,  came  flowing  in  upon  him 
from  many  sources.  He  threw  up  his  captain's 
commission,  and  retired  from  service  with  a  pen 
sion  as  lieutenant-colonel. 

But  he  had  not  read  his  own  heart  aright. 
The  memories  of  his  old  life,  of  its  adventures, 
its  vicissitudes,  its  brilliant  rewards,  began  to  stir 
within  him.  There  were  higher  grades  to  win, 
honors  and  crosses  to  decorate  his  breast  with,  and 
point  him  out  to  the  common  eye  as  a  man  of  mark. 
Before  a  year  of  that  domestic  life  which  prom 
ised  such  happiness  was  over,  he  was  once  more 
knocking  at  the  doors  of  men  in  power.  His  let 
ters  to  his  wife  show  how  warmly  he  loved  her, 
and  how  readily  she  entered  into  his  feelings. 

A  brilliant  opening  seemed  prepared  for  him. 
A  celebrated  warrior  of  the  school  of  the  great 
Frederick,  Count  William  of  Schaumburg-Lippe, 
having  successfully  defended  Portugal  from  a 
Spanish  invasion,  had  been  employed  to  raise  three 
German  regiments  for  the  Portuguese  service. 
Supported  by  both  the  De  Broglies,  Kalb  asked 
for  a  brigadier's  commission  in  them.  He  hoped 
that  after  a  few  campaigns  in  the  Portuguese 


100  KALE. 

army,  he  might  return  to  the  French  army  as  a 
general.  But  the  war  was  not  renewed,  and  the 
new  regiments  were  not  raised. 

Thus  far  Kalb  had  aimed  only  at  military  pro 
motion.  A  general's  commission  would  have  sat 
isfied  his  highest  aspirations  ;  a  cross  of  St.  Louis 
would  have  made  him  happy  for  the  rest  of  his 
life.  But  a  new  field  was  opening  for  him,  in 
which  his  power  of  accurate  observation  and  his 
sound  judgment  were  to  be  brought  into  active 
exercise.  It  was  now  that  his  attention  was  called 
for  the  first  time  to  the  dispute  between  England 
and  hefr  colonies. 

French  indignation  at  the  ignominious  treaty 
of  Paris  of  1763,  which  stripped  France  of  her 
colonies  in  North  America,  had  found  utterance 
in  the  ministry  of  the  Duke  of  Choiseul.  France 
had  reached  the  lowest  depths  of  humiliation. 
Her  troops  had  lost  their  moral  strength  by  a 
succession  of  defeats.  Her  ships  of  war  had  been 
annihilated.  Her  ships  of  commerce  had  been 
driven  from  the  seas.  Even  in  the  Mediterra 
nean,  which  she  had  learnt  to  look  upon  as  her 
own,  they  crept  stealthily  from  port  to  port. 
Had  Pitt  remained  at  the  head  of  the  ministry, 
the  house  of  Bourbon,  which  he  hated  so  bitterly, 
would  have  become  a  third-class  power  both  in 
France  and  in  Spain.  But  the  fall  of  Pitt  opened 
the  way,  if  not  for  the  recovery  of  all  that  had 
been  lost,  at  least  for  revenge. 


KALE.  101 

Choiseul  availed  himself  skillfully  of  the  op 
portunity.     He  resolved  to   renew  the   struggle 
for  the  mastery  of  the  ocean,  and  in  a  few  years 
had  sixty-four  ships  of   the  line   and   thirty-six 
frigates  afloat.     To  make  up  for  the  losses  in  the 
East  Indies  and  North  America,  he  encouraged 
the  development   and   commerce  of   the  French 
Antilles.     Santo  Domingo,  Guadaloupe,  and  Mar- 
tinico  began  to  pour  their  rich  harvests  into  the 
French   markets   and  extend   French  commerce 
into  new  fields.     Already  in  the  first  year  of  his 
administration  he  had  formed   that   compact  of 
the  Bourbon  family  which  plays  so  important  a 
part  in   the  history  of'  the  times.     In  the  very 
same  year  he  had  begun,  through  skillful  emissa 
ries,  to  open  the  way  for  extending  the  French 
power  in  Corsica  and  enlarging  French  commerce 
in  the  Levant.     Like  the  great  Napoleon  nearly 
half  a  century  later,  he  resolved  to  make  Egypt 
his  base  of  operations  against  the  English  posses 
sions  in   the  East  Indies.     The  treaty  of  Paris 
had  been  signed  in  1763.     In  1764   M.  de  Font- 
leroy,  an  agent  of  the  active  minister,  was  sent 
to  North  America  to  study  on  the  spot,    and  see 
whether  the  report  that  a  question  of  taxation 
was  fast  alienating  the  affections  of  the  British 
colonists  from  the  mother  country  was  true.     In 
1766  the  answer  came.     Fontleroy,  entering  fully 
into  the  views  of  his  employer,  traveled  over  the 


102  KALB. 

land  in  its  length  and  breadth,  taking  careful 
note  of  its  rich  soil,  its  abundance  of  grain,  its 
vast  stores  of  iron,  its  boundless  forests  of  timber, 
its  capacious  harbors,  and  mighty  rivers.  The 
inhabitants,  he  said,  were  a  hardy,  bold,  and 
enterprising  race,  growing  daily  in  wealth  and 
power,  and  fully  conscious  of  their  strength. 
Choiseul  smiled  at  the  flattering  report,  so  favor 
able  to  his  own  wishes,  and  continued  his  inquir 
ies.  How  well  they  were  conducted  the  extracts 
from  New  England  sermons  still  preserved  in 
the  French  archives  attest. 

It  was  evident  'that  there  was  a  general  fer 
mentation  in  the  colonies,  but  how  extensive,  and 
how  like  to  prove  lasting,  it  was  difficult  to  say. 
The  minister  resolved  to  send  a  new  agent,  and 
fixed  upon  Kalb  for  the  delicate  and  difficult 
office.  "  M.  de  Kalb,"  say  his  instructions,  "  will 
repair  to  Amsterdam  and  there  direct  his  partic 
ular  attention  to  the  rumors  in  circulation  about 
the  English  colonies.  Should  they  appear  to  be 
well  founded,  he  will  immediately  make  prepa 
rations  for  a  journey  to  America. 

"  On  his  arrival  he  will  inquire  into  the  in 
tentions  of  the  inhabitants,  and  endeavor  to  ascer 
tain  whether  they  are  in  want  of  good  engineers 
and  artillery  officers,  or  other  individuals,  and 
whether  they  should  be  supplied  with  them. 

"  He  will  acquaint  himself   with   the   greater 


KALE.  103 

or  lesser  strength  of  their  purpose  to  withdraw 
from  the  English  government. 

"  He  will  examine  their  resources  in  troops, 
fortified  places,  and  forts,  and  will  seek  to  discover 
their  plan  of  revolt  and  the  leaders  who  are  ex 
pected  to  direct  and  control  it. 

"  Great  reliance  is  placed  in  the  intelligence 
and  address  of  M.  de  Kalb  in  the  pursuit  of  a 
mission  requiring  an  uncommon  degree  of  tact 
and  shrewdness,  and  he  is  expected  to  report  prog 
ress  as  often  as  possible." 

Honorable  as  this  mission  was,  it  was  not  with 
out  hesitation  that  Kalb  accepted  it.  "  Do  not 
decline  the  mission  with  which  I  have  intrusted 
you,"  said  Choiseul.  "  I  know  that  it  is  difficult 
and  requires  great  sagacity.  But  I  have  fixed 
my  choice  upon  you  after  much  deliberation,  and 
know  that  you  will  see  no  reason  to  regret  it. 
Ask  of  me  the  means  which  you  think  neces 
sary  for  its  execution ;  I  will  furnish  you  with 
them  all."  It  was  no  longer  time  to  hesitate. 
On  the  2d  of  May  he  received  his  passports,  let 
ters,  letters  of  introduction  to  the  French  ambas 
sadors  at  Brussels  and  the  Hague,  and  twelve 
hundred  francs  for  his  traveling  expenses.  On 
the  15th  of  July  he  addressed  his  first  dispatch  to 
Choiseul  from  the  Hague. 

He  had  done  his  duty  thoroughly,  visiting  all 
the  sea-ports  of  Holland,  and  conversing  with  men 


104  KALE. 

who  had  lived  in  the  colonies.  A  German  who 
had  passed  fifteen  years  there,  and  was  actually 
collecting  new  colonists  to  carry  back  with  him, 
assured  him  that,  in  spite  of  appearances,  the 
breach  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother 
country  was  as  wide  as  ever.  The  English  troops 
were  but  twenty  thousand  in  number,  and  those 
twenty  thousand  were  so  widely  scattered  that 
they  would  find  it  hard  to  cope  with  the  four 
hundred  thousand  militia  of  the  colonies.  The 
Germans  of  Pennsylvania  could  raise  sixty  thou 
sand  men.  The  Irish  population  was  numerous 
and  ready  for  revolt.  The  provincial  assembly 
were  resolved  to  maintain  their  rights  by  the 
sword.  The  English,  on  the  contrary,  asserted 
that  the  spirit  of  resistance  had  been  laid  by  the 
repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act.  Kalb  listened  attent 
ively  to  both  statements,  and  suspected  exagger 
ation  in  both.  "  This  may  be  said  for  effect, 
and  to  conceal  the  actual  condition  of  things," 
was  his  comment  on  the  English  report.  "  I  am 
only  repeating  his  assertions,  without  being  con 
vinced  of  their  truth,"  he  says  of  the  German 
emigrant.  He  had  early  learnt  the  art  of  ju 
dicious  doubt.  Choiseul,  with  his  hot  Celtic 
blood,  was  more  sanguine  than  his  Teutonic 
agent. 

Meanwhile,  the  work  of  raising  emigrants  for 
the  colonies  went  briskly  on.     At  Rotterdam  he 


KALE.  105 

saw  twelve  hundred  of  them,  traveling  from  Co 
logne,  by  way  of  Maestricht  and  Herzogenbush. 
Frederick  had  forbidden  them  to  pass  through  his 
territories.  We  can  form  some  idea  of  the  dis 
comforts  of  their  passage  across  the  Atlantic  from 
the  fact  that  they  were  all  crowded  into  four  of 
the  small  and  inconvenient  ships  of  those  days. 
If  we  would  form  an  idea  of  the  manner  in  which, 
at  about  this  same  time,  Englishmen  were  lured 
into  emigration,  we  have  only  to  follow  George 
Primrose  in  the  "  Vicar  of  Wakefield  "  to  the 
emigrant  agent's  office  in  London  :  "  In  this  office 
Mr.  Crispe  kindly  offers  all  his  majesty's  sub 
jects  a  generous  promise  of  <£30  a  year,  for 
which  promise  all  they  give  in  return  is  their  lib 
erty  for  life,  and  permission  to  let  him  transport 
them  to  America  as  slaves." 

Kalb's  first  dispatch  had  hardly  reached  the 
minister,  when  tidings  of  the  temporary  lull  in 
the  tempest  which  followed  the  repeal  of  the 
Stamp  Act  reached  Europe.  He  asked  for  new 
instructions.  "  As  it  is  possible  and  even  proba 
ble,"  answered  Choiseul,  with  the  sure  percep 
tion  of  a  true  statesman,  "  that  this  quiet  will  not 
be  of  long  duration,  it  is  the  will  of  his  majesty 
that  you  should  make  immediate  preparations  for 
a  speedy  tour  to  America,  in  order  to  satisfy  your 
self  by  personal  inspection  as  to  the  condition  of 
the  country,  its  harbors,  ships,  land  forces,  re- 


106  KALE. 

sources,  weapons,  munitions  of  war,  and  provis 
ions  —  in  short,  as  to  the  means  at  our  command 
if  disposed,  in  case  of  a  war  with  England,  to 
make  a  diversion  in  that  direction.  You  will 
adopt  the  greatest  precautions  in  sending  me  your 
report,  and  will  immediately  upon  your  arrival 
inform  me  where  to  direct  such  letters  as  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  write  you." 

It  throws  a  pleasant  light  upon  Kalb's  relations 
with  his  wife  that  he  asked  the  minister  to  send 
his  "  commands  and  answers  "  through  her.  The 
instructions  of  Choiseul  were  promptly  obeyed. 
On  reaching  London  he  found  that  to  wait  for 
the  monthly  packet  would  cause  a  delay  of  ten 
days.  "  I  prefer,  therefore,"  he  writes,  "  to  take 
the  merchantman  Hercules,  Captain  Hammet, 
which  sets  sail  from  Gravesend  to-morrow  for 
Philadelphia."  Had  he  been  inclined  to  super 
stition  he  might  have  looked  upon  his  stormy  pas 
sage  of  three  months  as  the  forerunner  of  disas 
ter.  On  the  12th  of  January,  1768,  he  landed  at 
Philadelphia. 

An  expression  in  his  first  report,  written  three 
days  after  his  arrival,  shows  how  promptly  he  had 
fathomed  the  real  nature  of  the  relations  of  the 
mother  country  to  the  colonies.  He  calls  them 
an  "  invaluable  magazine  of  raw  productions,  and 
a  most  profitable  market  for  English  manufact 
ures."  Looking  at  them  from  this  point  of  view 


KALB.  107 

he  cannot  conceive  that  the  British  government 
will  spare  any  efforts  to  secure  such  a  mine  of 
wealth.  He  quickly  saw,  also,  that  the  dispute 
was  far  from  being  adjusted.  In  Holland  the 
English  party  had  assured  him  that  the  repeal  of 
the  Stamp  Act  had  been  voluntary.  In  Phila 
delphia  he  learnt  that  it  had  been  wrung  from 
the  ministers  by  organized  resistance.  He  was 
struck  by  the  substantial  union  of  the  provincial 
assemblies.  He  attached  great  importance  to 
the  renunciation  by  Boston  of  British  commerce. 
He  saw  the  full  significance  of  the  part  borne  by 
women  in  the  dispute,  a  part  of  sacrifice  and  self- 
denial.  "  They  deny  themselves  tea,  they  deny 
themselves  foreign  sugar.  They  will  have  no 
more  fine  linens  from  England,  but  sedulously  ply 
their  spinning-wheels  to  prepare  them  linens  of 
their  own.  Silks,  which  they  cannot  yet  make 
for  themselves,  they  will  do  without."  He  de 
tects,  also,  signs  of  forbearance  on  the  part  of  the 
Parliament.  The  troops  treat  the  colonists  with 
greater  forbearance.  The  commanding  general, 
instead  of  prosecuting  libels  and  pasquinades, 
pretends  to  ignore  them  ;  and  the  authors,  though 
well  known,  go  unpunished.  He  has  not  had 
time  to  study  the  military  question,  but  foresees 
many  obstacles  to  carrying  on  war  with  militia, 
and  obstacles  equally  great  to  the  formation  of 
an  army  in  a  country  so  extensive  and  so  divided. 


108  KALE. 

In  one  thing  he  saw  that  the  temper  of  the  colo 
nists  had  been  misjudged.  The  remoteness  of 
the  centre  of  government  inspired  them  with  a 
spirit  of  freedom  and  enterprise  ;  and  their  taxes 
were  very  light ;  but  they  had  no  desire  to  "  shake 
off  the  English  supremacy  with  the  aid  of  for 
eign  powers."  The  immediate  object  of  popular 
hatred  was  the  House  of  Commons  ;  of  popular 
admiration,  William  Pitt. 

On  the  20th  of  January  he  writes  again.  He 
has  had  time  to  look  about  him,  and  to  sift  and 
verify  his  observations.  It  is  very  interesting  to 
study  the  impressions  of  an  intelligent  foreigner 
at  this  critical  moment,  and  compare  them  with 
those  of  our  own  public  men.  America  was  so 
little  known  that  the  wildest  stories  were  re 
peated  without  exciting  a  doubt ;  and  it  required 
no  common  sagacity  to  form  a  calm  and  deliber 
ate  opinion  in  the  midst  of  so  many  contradic 
tions.  A  circumstance  which  caused  him  no  little 
alarm  was  to  find  that  his  letters  had  been  opened 
in  their  passage  through  the  post-office.  Would 
they  not  all  be  opened  and  the  information  which 
he  had  so  laboriously  collected  be  read  in  Down 
ing  Street  before  it  reached  Versailles  ?  What, 
too,  would  become  of  his  mission  if  the  letters  of 
the  minister  should  be  intercepted  ?  He  resolved 
to  forestall  the  danger  by  hastening  his  tour  of 
observation  and  returning  home  in  April.  The 


KALB.  109 

few  days  that  had  passed  between  his  first  and 
second  dispatches  were  sufficient  to  convince 
him  that  the  indignation  excited  by  the  Stamp 
Act  had  not  been  appeased  by  its  repeal.  The 
declaratory  act,  by  which  Parliament  claimed  the 
right  to  bind  the  colonies  in  all  cases  whatever, 
was  equally  unacceptable,  and  the  tax  on  tea, 
paper,  and  glass  which  followed  was  interpreted 
as  an  indirect  method  of  enforcing  the  principle 
of  the  Stamp  Act.  Concerning  the  nature  of  this 
principle  the  colonists  had  no  doubt.  With  taxa 
tion  went  representation.  By  the  English  con 
stitution  no  province  could  be  taxed  without  being 
represented,  and  "  England  ought  to  be  content 
with  the  profits  it  derives  from  selling  the  colo 
nists  worthless  goods  at  high  prices,  and  purchas 
ing  necessaries  from  them  for  a  song."  Neither  did 
it  escape  Kalb's  attention  that  an  equally  bitter 
feeling  had  been  awakened  by  the  restraints  with 
which  the  Parliament  had  hampered  American 
industry.  No  sooner  had  the  manufacture  of  iron 
become  almost  equal  to  that  of  England  than  it 
was  prohibited  by  law.  The  same  repression  of 
manufacturing  enterprise  had  been  extended  to 
other  branches  of  industry.  Could  the  colonists 
doubt  that  they  were  to  be  systematically  cut  off 
from  the  most  important  sources  of  wealth,  and 
their  prosperity  made  to  depend  upon  the  caprice 
of  the  mother  country  ?  And  he  esteemed  the 


110  KALE. 

restrictions  imposed  upon  American  commerce 
equally  unwise  and  unjust.  It  was  not  with  raw 
material  alone  that  the  colonists  purchased  En 
glish  goods.  The  balance  of  trade  was  against 
them  and  they  were  compelled  to  drain  themselves 
of  their  gold  and  silver  to  make  up  the  difference. 
Now  the  specie  required  to  meet  the  demands 
of  the  English  merchant  was  drawn  from  the 
commerce  of  the  colonists  with  the  West  Indies 
and  the  Spanish  Main  ;  and  as  fast  as  it  reached 
the  hand  of  the  American  merchant  it  passed  to 
those  of  the  English  merchant.  But  instead  of 
promoting  this  commerce,  Parliament  prohibited 
it.  Kalb  thought  that  the  decrease  of  specie  was 
real,  but  that  it  was  an  exaggeration  to  attribute 
it  wholly  to  the  decay  of  the  commerce  with  the 
West  Indies.  "  There  is  reason  to  suppose,"  he 
writes,  "  that  it  is  hoarded  on  account  of  the  dis 
turbed  state  of  affairs.  I  cannot  believe  the  state 
ments  made  with  regard  to  the  sums  exported  to 
England ;  it  is  pretended  that  the  article  of  tea 
alone,  has  netted  them  three  hundred  thousand 
pounds.  As  soon  as  I  can  obtain  an  insight  into 
this  matter  I  shall  report  upon  it."  He  looked 
to  the  non-intercourse  resolves  as  a  fatal  blow  to 
English  industry.  "  The  result  of  all  these  facts," 
he  writes,  "  is  that  the  colonies  are  more  than 
ever  willing  to  retrench  their  expenditures  and 
live  exclusively  upon  their  own  productions." 


KALE.  HI 

On  the  25th  of  January,  1768,  he  started  for 
New  York.  It  was  a  long,  tedious,  and  disastrous 
journey.  The  land  carriage  was  cold  and  slow  ; 
the  passage  of  the  Delaware  was  difficult  and 
dangerous.  It  took  three  days  to  reach  Princeton. 
A  fresh  wind  was  blowing  when  he  reached  the 
Kill,  but  it  was  fair,  and  the  landlord  of  the  Ferry 
Inn  and  the  ferryman  himself  said  that  the  pas 
sage  was  safe.  There  were  five  men  to  cross  and 
four  horses,  and  although  it  was  already  between 
eight  and  nine  in  the  evening  they  set  sail.  But 
no  sooner  had  they  reached  the  middle  of  the 
stream  than  the  wind  chopped  round,  and  drove 
the  helpless  little  craft  upon  a  small  island  half 
way  between  the  ferry  and  the  mouth  of  Fish- 
Kill  Creek,  where  she  sank.  The  horses  were 
drowned  and  the  baggage  lost ;  but  the  passengers, 
partly  by  wading  and  partly  by  swimming,  reached 
the  shore.  It  was  but  half  a  mile  from  the  ferry, 
but  they  could  not  make  themselves  heard.  There 
was  neither  tree  nor  shrub  to  shelter  them  from 
the  bleak  wind.  They  huddled  close  together  to 
get  what  warmth  they  might  from  the  contact  of 
their  bodies.  They  stamped  with  their  feet  and 
thrashed  with  their  arms,  and  walked  up  and  down 
to  keep  off  the  sleep  which  leads  to  death.  The 
heavy  hours  wore  slowly  on.  At  eleven  the  ferry 
boy  died.  At  three,  Mr.  George,  a  passenger. 
Day  came  at  last,  but  it  was  not  till  nine  that 


112  KALE. 

they  were  seen  from  the  shore  and  a  boat  sent  for 
them.  Benumbed,  unconscious,  hardly  able  to 
move  their  limbs,  they  were  placed  in  a  sleigh  and 
conveyed  to  the  house  of  Mr.  Mercerau,  whose 
name  reappears  a  few  years  later  in  a  useful, 
though  not  brilliant  position  in  the  war  of  inde 
pendence.  The  first  instinct  of  the  half-frozen 
men  was  to  crowd  around  the  fire,  and  they  paid 
for  the  imprudence  by  the  loss  of  fingers  or  toes, 
and  in  one  instance,  of  a  leg.  The  wiser  Kalb 
bathed  his  feet  and  legs  in  ice-water  and  then 
ate  and  went  to  bed.  His  baggage  was  lost,  and 
with  it  "  several  hundred  louis  d'or,  the  badge  of 
his  order,  and  the  key  to  his  cipher."  It  was  not 
till  the  end  of  February  that  he  was  able  to  re 
new  his  correspondence  with  the  minister.  His 
time  had  not  been  lost,  and  his  report  bears  the 
marks  of  a  careful  study  of  his  subject. 

"  The  colonies,"  he  writes  on  the  25th  of  Feb 
ruary,  "  seem  to  intrench  themselves  more  and 
more  in  their  system  of  opposition  and  of  econo 
my.  It  is  said  that  the  merchants  of  London  are 
already  beginning  to  feel  the  effects  of  this  policy  ; 
that  in  consequence  of  it  the  wages  of  labor  are 
fallen  off  ;  that  a  number  of  the  trades,  by  com 
bining  among  themselves,  have  destroyed  the 
business  of  those  who  worked  for  less  than  the 
established  prices."  Then  passing  to  the  subject 
of  taxation,  which  he  has  evidently  studied  with 


KALE.  113, 

great  intelligence  and  care,  lie  embodies  his  con 
clusions  in  these  words  :  "  The  assembly  at  Bos 
ton  have  just  resolved  to  remonstrate  with  the 
court  against  the  tea  tax,  as  will  appear  from 
the  accompanying  English  documents,  which  I 
inclose  in  the  original  in  order  to  excite  less  sus 
picion  in  case  this  letter  should  be  intercepted. 
The  dissatisfaction  with  the  impost  grows  out  of 
their  aversion  to  being  taxed  by  the  Parliament 
instead  of  by  the  representatives  of  their  own? 
provinces.  It  would  seem  to  me  that  the  court  of 
St.  James  mistakes  its  own  interest.  If  the  king, 
would  ask  the  colonies  for  sums  much  larger  than 
the  proceeds  of  the  imposts  in  dispute,  they  would 
be  granted  without  any  objection,  provided  the 
colonists  were  left  at  liberty  to  tax  themselves, 
and,  as  free  subjects,  to  give  their  money  with 
their  own  consent.  During  the  late  war  they 
have  paid  enormous  sums,  larger  ones  than  the- 
king  demanded,  because  he  approached  their  as 
semblies  with  the  same  formalities  as  he  observed 
in  calling  upon  Parliament  for  subsidies.  It  is  a 
matter  of  surprise  that  the  court  has  discarded 
this  advantageous  method,  and  that  the  people 
of  Great  Britain  are  ready  to  subvert  the  funda 
mental  polity  of  the  kingdom  by  taxing  their  fel 
low-citizens  without  their  consent,  when  they 
submit  to  the  same  proceeding  only  at  the  hands 
of  their  representatives  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

8 


114  KALB. 

The  colonies  have  the  same  right ;  they  can  only 
be  taxed  by  their  own  assemblies.     The   king 
would  therefore  have  to  make  an  application  for 
that  purpose  to  every  single  colony.    But  the  col 
onies  themselves  would  not  favor  the  last  alter 
native,  partly  on  account  of  the  expense  involved, 
and  partly  on  account  of  the  certainty  of  finding 
themselves  in  a  minority  on  all  occasions,  which 
would  unavoidably  constrain  them  to  participate 
in  every  war  waged  in  Europe  by  England  or  by 
the  Elector  of   Hanover.     They  would  prefer  a 
Parliament  or  a  continental  assembly,  a  power 
which,  however,  would  soon  become  dangerous  to 
the  crown.     All  classes  of  people  here  are  imbued 
with  such  a  spirit  of  independence  and  freedom 
from    control  that  if    all   the  provinces    can   be 
united  under  a  common  representation  an  inde 
pendent  state  will  soon  be  formed.    At  all  events, 
it  will  certainly  come  forth  in  time.     Whatever 
may  be  done  in  London,  this  country  is  growing 
too  powerful  to  be  much  longer  governed  at  such 
a  distance.     The  population  is  now  estimated  at 
three  million,  and  is  expected  to  double  itself  in 
less  than  thirty  years.     It  is  not  to  be,  denied 
that  children  swarm  everywhere  like  ants.     The 
people  are  strong  and  robust,  and  even  the  En 
glish  officers  admit  that  the  militia  are  equal  to 
the  line  in  every  respect. 

"  I  have  not  yet  obtained  accurate  information 


KALE.  115 

as  to  the  number  of  the  militia,  but  shall  soon 
be  able  to  submit  a  reliable  report.  The  English 
troops  under  General  Gage,  occupying  the  coun 
try  from  New  England  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
muster  sixteen  regiments,  each  of  ten  companies, 
numbering  seventy  men  in  time  of  peace  and  a 
hundred  in  time  of  war,  besides  a  company  of 
artillery  and  a  number  of  engineers.  I  believe 
I  have  already  mentioned  that  these  troops  are 
changed  every  three  years."  Nor  does  he  hesi 
tate  to  touch  by  the  wayside  upon  a  kindred  ques 
tion.  "  From  conversations  with  several  promi 
nent  individuals  here  I  have  learned  that  the 
English  government  greatly  regrets  having  made 
peace  with  Spain  without  demanding  possession 
of  the  island  of  Porto  Rico,  the  possession  of 
which  is  in  every  respect  so  favorable  to  English 
interests.  Under  the  pretext  of  protecting  their 
trade,  the  English  government  has  many  men  of 
war  at  sea  and  a  large  number  of  troops  on  the 
continent,  not  to  mention  those  already  stationed 
on  the  islands.  It  is  evident  that  these  troops 
are  so  distributed  for  the  special  purpose  of  being 
prepared  to  pounce  upon  the  French  and  Spanish 
settlements  on  these  islands  at  the  first  speck  of 
war.  That  the  English  have  treated  as  good 
prizes  several  ships  captured  near  the  island  of  St. 
Juan  in  the  course  of  last  year,  you  have  doubt 
less  been  informed." 


116  KALE. 

His  observations  at  Boston  confirm  his  obser 
vations   at   Philadelphia   and   New   York.      "  I 
meet,"  he  writes,  "  with  the  same  opinions  as  in 
the  provinces  already  visited,  only  expressed  with 
greater  violence  and  acrimony.     The  four  prov 
inces  composing  New  England  —  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hampshire 
—  appear  to  be  more  firmly  united  among  them 
selves,  on  account  of  the  community  of  interests, 
than  the  remaining  colonies.     Massachusetts   in 
particular,  the  most  wealthy  and  populous,  gives 
the   impulse  and   the  signal  of  independence  to 
the   rest.     In  spite  of    this   restive  spirit,   how 
ever,    they  all,  from   the   leaders   down   to   the 
humblest  citizen,  seemed   to  be   imbued  with  a 
heartfelt  love  of  the  mother    country.     The  in 
habitants  of  this  province  are  almost  exclusively 
Englishmen  or  of  English  stock,  and  the  liberties 
so  long  enjoyed  by  them  have  only  swelled  the 
pride  and  presumption  peculiar  to   that  people. 
All    these    circumstances   go   to    show   but   too 
clearly  that  there  will  be  no  means  of  inducing 
them  to   accept  of  assistance   from   abroad.     In 
fact  they  are  so  well  convinced  of  the  justice  of 
their  cause,  the    clemency  of   the   king,  and    of 
their  own  importance  to  the  mother  country,  that 
they  have  never  contemplated  the  possibility  of 
extreme  measures.     The  government  is  accused 
of  fomenting  the   existing  discontent   for  selfish 


KALB.  117 

purposes.  The  inclosed  English  slip  will  ac 
quaint  you  with  the  internal  dissensions  on  this 
subject,  and  reveal  the  causes  of  complaint  which 
are  urged  against  the  government.  I  adhere  to 
the  opinion  that  the  incendiaries  will  not  alone 
succumb,  but  that  the  colonies  will  yet  have  the 
satisfaction  of  seeing  the  mother  country  admit 
herself  to  have  been  in  the  wrong,  and  do  her 
best  to  repair  it." 

Nothing  struck  him  with  such  surprise  as  the 
commercial  spirit  of  the  colonists.  "  I  am  more 
and  more  astonished,"  he  writes,  "  at  the  number 
of  merchantmen  to  be  seen  in  the  ports,  rivers, 
and  bays,  from  the  Potomac  and  Chesapeake  to 
Boston  harbor.  And  in  addition  to  these,  num 
berless  ships  are  in  course  of  construction.  What 
must  have  been  the  trade  of  these  colonies  before 
the  disturbances  began  ?  Nor  am  I  less  struck 
with  the  flourishing  appearance  of  the  interior. 
On  my  return  to  France  I  shall  report  the  most 
minute  particulars  in  this  connection." 

From  Boston,  Kalb  went  to  Halifax,  making 
everywhere  the  same  inquiries  and  obtaining  the 
same  answers.  The  ultimate  separation  of  the 
colonies  from  the  mother  country  he  looked  upon 
as  inevitable,  but  did  not  believe  that  they  would 
ever  call  in  a  foreign  power  to  their  aid.  It  was 
to  the  steady  increase  of  their  population  and 
prosperity,  and  not  to  foreign  bayonets,  that  he 
looked  for  the  final  separation. 


118  KALE. 

He  had  done  a  great  deal  of  work  in  a  very 
short  time,  and  developed  civil  talents  of  a  very 
high  order.  His  reports  contain  views  of  the  col 
onies  which  threw  a  clear  but  sober  light  npon 
the  aims  and  character  of  the  colonists  and  the  re 
sources  of  the  country.  He  saw  from  the  first 
what  our  own  statesmen  were  several  years  in 
seeing,  that  the  Canadians  could  not  be  counted 
by  the  French  government  as  allies.  "  There 
are,"  he  writes,  "but  few  persons  in  those  im 
mense  provinces  in  sympathy  with  France.  The 
most  devoted  to  us  have  left  the  country  since 
the  close  of  the  war,  and  those  who  remain  are 
satisfied  with  their  present  condition  or  expect 
no  improvement  of  it  from  a  change  of  rulers. 
Their  lands  have  risen  in  value,  they  pay  but 
trifling  taxes,  enjoy  unqualified  freedom  of  con 
science  as  well  as  all  the  privileges  of  the  En 
glish  people,  and  take  part  in  the  management  of 
public  affairs.  Besides,  they  have  become  closely 
allied  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring 
provinces  by  intermarriages  and  other  ties.  I 
regard  it  as  my  duty  to  speak  candidly  on  all 
these  matters,  because  I  will  not  deceive  you, 
and  do  not  wish  you  to  be  deceived  by  others. 
In  case  of  a  war  with  our  neighbors  beyond  the 
Channel,  it  would  be  difficult,  therefore,  to  make 
a  diversion  to  this  part  of  their  possessions.  I 
always  recur  to  my  belief  that  the  quarrels  of 


KALE.  119 

the  English  with  their  colonies  will  terminate 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  latter.  A  war  with  us 
would  only  hasten  their  reconciliation,  and  on 
the  footing  of  restored  privileges,  the  English 
court  would  even  direct  all  the  troops,  resources, 
and  ships  of  this  part  of  the  world  against  our 
islands  and  the  Spanish  Main.  A  foreign  war 
is  less  hurtful  to  England  than  internal  discord, 
which,  however,  would  at  once  yield  to  the  ne 
cessity  of  defense  against  a  common  foe." 

To  extend  the  field  of  his  observations,  Kalb 
proposed   to   go  from  Halifax  to  Maine,  thence 
by   sleigh   to    Lake  Champlain,    and   return   to 
New  York  by  the  valley  of  the  Hudson.     But, 
meanwhile,  a  grave  difficulty  arose.     In  spite  of 
all  the  pains  he  had  been  at  to  secure  the  trans 
mission  of  his  letters,  they  had  reached  his  wife 
with  the  seals  broken.     It  was  evident  that  he 
was  an  object  of  suspicion,  and  should  his  com 
munication  with  the  minister  be  interrupted,  it 
would   be   impossible   for   him   to   continue   his 
work.     A  task   so   delicate   as   that  which   had 
been  assigned  him  could  not  be  performed  with 
out   frequent   instructions.     He   resolved,  there 
fore,  to  return   to   France,  make   new   arrange 
ments  for  his  correspondence,  and  hold  himself 
at  the  minister's  orders  if  a  new  mission  should 
be   thought  necessary.      "  Even    admitting  the 
possibility  of  a  positive  rupture,"  he  writes,  "  the 


120  KALB. 

opening  of  positive  hostilities  between  the  court 
and  the  colonies  cannot  but  be  far  distant,  as 
it  presupposes  the  participation  of  the  people, 
the  shipment  of  large  masses  of  troops,  and 
extensive  levies  of  soldiers  and  sailors.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  colonies,  if  hard  pressed,  would 
make  a  pretense  of  submission,  to  gain  time  for 
erecting  a  navy,  concentrating  and  disciplining 
their  forces,  and  making  other  needful  prepara 
tions." 

These  reasonings  and  conjectures  of  an  intelli 
gent  foreigner  have  a  deep  interest  for  the  stu 
dent  of  our  revolutionary  history.  It  is  evident 
that  Kalb  had  been  strongly  impressed  with  the 
resources  and  rapid  growth  of  the  colonies.  It 
is  equally  evident  that  he  detected  the  foreshad- 
owings  and  the  eventual  necessity  of-  independ 
ence.  Such  sources  of  wealth  could  not  long 
remain  at  the  unquestioned  disposal  of  a  dis 
tant  central  government.  A  people  so  enter 
prising  and  intelligent  and  bold  could  not  faiHo 
become  independent  by  their  natural  growth. 
Would  they  begin  the  struggle  now,  or,  although 
the  quarrel  seemed  almost  forced  upon  them, 
would  they  wait  till  they  were  more  fully  pre 
pared?  They  had  not  yet  been  pushed  far 
enough  to  make  them  willing  to  accept  foreign 
aid.  They  still  loved  their  mother  country,  al 
though  she  did  nothing  to  win  their  love.  What 


KALE.  121 

was  the  part  of  France  to  be  in  the  impending 
contest  ?  Evidently  that  of  an  interested  state, 
seeking  for  an  opportunity  to  avenge  itself  on  an 
enemy.  And  how  could  that  revenge  be  made 
sure  ?  The  period  of  enthusiastic  sympathy  had 
not  yet  been  reached.  A  premature  foreign  war 
would  efface  the  sense  of  their  wrongs  in  the 
hearts  of  the  colonists  and  check  the  crown  in  its 
career  of  usurpation.  Kalb  believed  that  France 
would  only  obtain  her  end  by  watching.  The 
day  of  separation  would  surely  come.  To  en 
deavor  to  hasten  it  would  be  risking  all  on  a  sin 
gle  throw  when  the  game  was  already  in  her 
hands. 

There  is  another  value  in  these  reports.  They 
bear  directly  on  the  question  of  the  motives  of 
France  in  the  treaty  of  1778.  Of  these  I  have 
already  spoken  in  my  "  Historical  View  of  the 
American  Revolution."  But  I  would  call  atten 
tion  to  them  again,  as  Kalb's  mission  affords  the 
strongest  evidence  that  whatever  may  have  been 
the  aims  of  Vergennes,  Choiseul  was  seeking  the 
humiliation  of  England. 

In  April  Kalb  sailed  for  England,  and  on  the 
12th  of  June  was  in  Paris.  Of  all  his  reports,  five 
only  had  reached  the  minister.  But  he  had  the 
materials  of  other  reports  in  his  portfolio,  which 
he  arranged  and  sent  to  the  duke.  Through  the 
rest  of  the  summer  and  early  fall  Choiseul's  in- 


122  KALE. 

terest  in  the  colonies  was  unchanged.  But  an 
other  question  had  risen  which  now  absorbed  his 
attention.  He  had  long  been  trying  to  strengthen 
France  in  the  Mediterranean  by  the  subjugation 
of  Corsica.  And  here  first  comes  to  view  the 
Garibaldi  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the  Italian 
Paoli.  To  seize  upon  Corsica  was  to  weaken 
England.  Still  more  deadly  was  the  blow  which 
he  meditated  through  the  colonies.  By  a  system 
common  to  all,  the  commerce  of  each  was  con 
fined  to  the  mother  country.  Could  this  restric 
tion  be  removed  and  the  productions  of  North 
America  be  admitted  into  the  colonies  of  France 
and  Spain,  what  a  blow  would  be  given  to  the 
commercial  prosperity  of  England  !  So  thought 
Choiseul.  So  thought  Count  Chatelet,  the 
French  ambassador  at  the  court  of  St.  James. 
But  the  Spanish  ambassador,  Grimaldi,  saw  in  it 
the  building  of  the  English  colonies  into  a  pow 
erful  republic,  an  evil  example  to  the  French  and 
Spanish  colonies,  and  his  reasoning  prevailed. 
Had  he  gone  a  little  further  he  would  have  fore 
seen  that  the  colonies  were  making  rapid  strides 
towards  independence  by  virtue  of  a  law  more 
powerful  than  the  decrees  of  parliaments  or 
kings.  Absorbed  -by  these  questions  the  French 
minister  felt  that  he  had  no  more  need  of  Kalb 
and  his  reports,  and  coolly  threw  him  off.  Choi 
seul  was  a  great  minister,  but,  like  most  of  his 


KALE.  123 

class,  regarded  men  as  tools,  to  be  taken  up 
and  laid  down  at  will.  A  few  months  later  he 
found  that  in  spite  of  all  his  services,  and  while 
his  brain  was  still  teeming  with  designs  for  the 
glory  of  France,  he  too  was  but  a  tool  to  be  cast 
aside  at  the  caprice  of  a  vile  woman  and  still 
viler  king.  Had  Choiseul  remained  in  power  it  is 
difficult  not  to  believe  that  the  war  of  independ 
ence  would  have  begun  under  different  auspices 
and  led  to  speedier  results.  Still,  Kalb's  mission 
was  not  lost,  and  his  reports  and  the  documents 
which  he  collected  are  still  classed  among  the 
most  valuable  records  of  the  early  efforts  of 
France,  after  the  treaty  of  Paris,  to  undermine 
the  power  of  England  in  North  America. 

The  next  two  years  were  years  of  deep  humil 
iation  for  those  who  loved  France.  The  power 
of  the  infamous  Du  Barry  had  become  absolute. 
Ministers  and  officers  of  every  grade  were  depend 
ent  upon  her  favor.  The  king  himself  was  seen 
standing  hat  in  hand  by  her  carriage  at  a  public 
review.  The  downward  impulse  which  society 
had  received  from  the  licentious  administration 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans  reached  the  lowest  point 
of  degradation  during  the  last  years  of  Louis 
XV.  The  position  which  the  bold  bearing  and 
broad  statesmanship  of  Choiseul  had  won  for 
France  was  lost  by  the  incompetence  and  corrup 
tion  of  his  successor.  A  bold  and  resolute  inter- 


124  KALE. 

vention  might  have  prevented  the  partition  of 
Poland.  D'Aiguillon  could  only  negotiate  and 
intrigue  ;  and  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
England  was  compelled  by  the  menacing  charac 
ter  of  her  relations  with  her  colonies  to  confine 
her  action  to  an  unheeded  protest.  Individual 
sympathy  found  a  stronger  expression,  and  French 
and  English  officers,  acting  upon  their  own  re 
sponsibility,  were  found  in  the  Polish  army. 
Kalb  was  urged  to  join  them,  but  upon  terms 
that  he  could  not  accept.  It  was  not  till  Ver- 
gennes  was  firmly  seated  in  the  chair  of  foreign 
affairs  that  America  was  again  a  subject  of  in 
terest  in  the  French  cabinet. 

For  Kalb  these  years  were  not  without  their 
pleasures,  although  tranquil  beyond  any  others 
of  his  restless  life.  They  were  years  of  domestic 
happiness  and  that  pleasant  provision  for  the  fut 
ure  which  so  naturally  follows  the  appearance  of 
children  at  the  fireside.  He  bought  the  chateau 
of  Milon  la  Chapelle  with  its  lands  and  feudal 
rights.  He  made  a  general  arrangement  of  his 
affairs  ;  and,  carrying  into  private  life  all  the 
order  and  method  of  his  public  life,  won  for  him 
self  that  independence  which  accompanies  free 
dom  from  pecuniary  cares.  Still  the  ambitious 
and  active  nature  would  out.  No  chance  of  pro 
motion  escaped  his  watchful  eye.  He  was  only 
a  colonel ;  he  longed  to  be  a  brigadier.  He  had 


KALE.  125 

done  meritorious  service.     He  could  not  be  happy 
without  a  ribbon  or  a  cross  to  tell  it  by.     Nat 
ure  had  given  him  a  vigorous  frame    and  great 
powers  of  endurance.     Tranquil  walks  over  his 
own  grounds,  though  accompanied  with  the  feel 
ing  that  they  were  his  own,  that  every  tree  that 
he  planted,  every  path   that   he   opened,  would 
add  to  their  value  for  himself  and  his  children, 
could  not  satisfy  his  longing  for  excitement  and 
motion.     The  duties  and   resources  of   domestic 
life  were  insufficient  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  his 
active   and   aspiring   nature.     But   while    Louis 
XV.  lived,  all  his  efforts  to  obtain  active  service 
failed.     The   accession   of   Louis   XVI.    opened 
brighter   prospects.     His   friends  and   early  pa 
trons,  the  two  brothers  De  Broglie,  returned  to 
court,  and  soon  we  find  Kalb  in  active  life.     A 
new  rule   of   service  required    that  retired   staff 
officers  should  from  time  to  time  do  duty  in  gar 
rison,  and  when  in  1775  the  Count  de  Broglie 
went  to  Metz  as  military  commander-in-chief,  he 
took  Kalb  with  him.     His  exemplary  perform 
ance  of  his  duties  won  him  a  warm  recommen 
dation  to  the  Count  of  St.  Germain,  the  new  min 
ister  of  war.     "  When  you  shall  have  returned 
here,  M.  le  Comte,"  wrote   the   minister,  "  we 
shall  see  what  disposition  may  be  made  of  M.  de 
Kalb."     America,  too,  was   looming  up  on  the 
political  horizon  again,  and  Vergennes,  like  Choi- 


126  KALB. 

seul,  hated  England.  Kalb's  hopes  were  now 
high.  The  minister  of  war  gave  him  a  private 
audience,  and  he  obtained  a  furlough  of  two 
years.  He  asked  for  a  brigadiership,  but  there 
was  no  vacancy,  and  the  grade  of  mare'chal  de 
camp  was  promised  him  instead.  In  November 
the  question  of  promotion  was  decided  by  a 
commission  of  brigadier-general  for  the  islands. 
It  was  in  the  colonies  that  he  was  to  win  his 
grade.  This  period  of  his  career  deserves  a  care 
ful  study  for  its  connection  with  the  history  of 
the  French  alliance.  It  was  a  period  of  secret 
negotiations  and  public  disavowals,  of  promises 
made  or  broken  according  to  the  exigencies  of 
the  hour,  of  half-concealed  distrust  and  secret 
preparation.  Never  was  diplomacy  more  stained 
with  deceit.  Lord  Stormont  had  spies  on  the 
track  of  Vergennes.  The  spies  of  Vergennes  kept 
close  on  the  traces  of  Lord  Stormont.  France 
and  Spain  were  in  sincere  accord  with  regard 
to  England.  But  the  full  story  of  the  wiles  and 
craft  by  which  the  way  was  prepared  for  the 
treaty  of  1778  would  carry  us  too  far  beyond 
the  circle  of  Kalb's  individual  action.  We  con 
fine  ourselves  to  that,  and  find  enough  there 
to  afford  important  side  lights  for  the  general 
picture. 

Kalb  now  knew  what  was  expected  of  him  by 
the  government,  and  what  he  might  expect  from 


\2"'     v>. 
KALB.  127 

it  in  return.  Assistance  was  to  be  given  to  the 
colonies  as  far  as  it  could  be  done  without  com 
promising  France.  War  was  to  be  avoided  as 
long  as  possible,  and  accepted  only  when  the 
Americans  had  given  unequivocal  proofs  of  their 
strength  and  perseverance.  With  this  view  arms 
and  money  were  to  be  supplied  secretly,  and  for 
this  purpose  Colonel  du  Coudray,  an  artillery 
officer  of  distinction,  was  sent  on  an  apparent  tour 
of  inspection  to  the  forts  and  arsenals,  but  with 
secret  instructions  to  select  an  ample  supply  of 
arms  for  the  use  of  the  insurgents.  It  is  in  this 
connection  that  we  first  meet  the  name  of  Beau- 
marchais  in  American  history.  Kalb  was  to  go 
as  a  volunteer,  on  leave,  and  without  imperil 
ing  his  position  in  the  French  army.  Too  cau 
tious  to  hazard  himself  without  a  positive  agree 
ment  with  some  trustworthy  agent,  he  resolved 
to  wait  the  arrival  of  Silas  Deane,  the  secret 
agent  of  the  Americans,  who  was  daily  expected 
at  Paris.  Of  this  somewhat  equivocal  character 
in  American  history  I  have  already  told  as  much 
as  the  occasion  required  in  the  work  referred  to 
above.  He  eagerly  grasped  at  the  opportunity  of 
securing  the  services  of  so  experienced  an  officer, 
and  assured  him  of  the  grade  of  major-general, 
with  rank  from  the  7th  of  November,  1776.  Kalb 
and  Vergennes  would  have  smiled  could  they 
have  seen  the  closing  sentence  of  the  dispatch  in 


128  KALE. 

which  the  unskilled  agent  announced  the  nego 
tiation  to  Congress.  "  This  gentleman,"  he 
writes,  "  has  an  independent  fortune,  and  a  cer 
tain  prospect  of  advancement  here,  but  being  a 
zealous  friend  to  liberty,  civil  and  religious,  he 
is  actuated  by  the  most  independent  and  generous 
principles  in  the  offer  he  makes  of  his  services  to 
the  States  of  America."  On  the  1st  of  December 
a  formal  contract  was  signed,  Kalb  affixing  his 
name  to  it  for  himself  and  fifteen  others.  On 
the  7th  of  December  a  new  contract  was  signed, 
and  on  this  we  find  the  name  of  Lafayette,  the 
first  time  that  we  meet  this  beloved  name  in 
American  history.  This  important  transaction 
did  not  escape  the  watchful  eye  of  the  English 
ambassador,  who  immediately  reported  it  to  his 
government.  But  England  did  not  want  a  war 
with  France,  and  delayed  her  revenge. 

Meanwhile  the  arms  and  military  stores  des 
tined  for  the  insurgents  reached  different  ports  at 
which  they  were  to  be  embarked  ;  a  large  number 
of  officers  also  appeared  in  the  streets  of  Havre 
and  other  seaport  towns.  Love  of  adventure, 
thirst  for  distinction,  an  ill- defined  zeal  for  the 
rights  of  men,  had  kindled  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
young  nobility.  Some  of  them,  of  large  fortunes 
and  high  rank,  resolved  to  take  an  active  part  in 
the  contest.  But  instead  of  following  the  course 
which  the  relations  between  France  and  England 


KALE.  129 

required,  they  talked  loud  in  the  streets,  dis 
cussed  their  plans  in  coffee-houses,  and  went  fur 
ther  than  Lord  Stormont's  spies  in  supplying 
him  with  materials  for  remonstrance.  Even  the 
shrewd  Beaumarchais,  forgetting  his  role,  gave 
the  rein  to  his  vanity  as  a  dramatist,  and  had 
some  of  his  plays  brought  out  on  the  stage  at 
Havre. 

On  the  14th  of  December  the  Amphitrite  sailed 
with  Du  Coudray  and  his  suite.  Like  Kalb, 
Du  Coudray,  on  reaching  Philadelphia,  was  to 
rank  as  major-general,  thus  outranking  native 
officers  of  the  highest  merit.  When  the  tidings 
reached  the  colonies  it  excited  a  menacing  dis 
satisfaction.  But  for  the  moment  the  danger 
was  averted.  The  accommodations  of  the  Am 
phitrite  and  the  storage  of  her  cargo  were  found 
unsuitable  for  a  long  voyage,  and  she  returned  to 
L' Orient.  With  such  evidence  in  his  hands 
Lord  Stormont .  addressed  an  energetic  remon 
strance  to  the  French  minister,  who,  not  yet  pre 
pared  for  war,  forbade  the  expedition.  At  this 
critical  moment  arrived  the  tidings  of  the  disheart 
ening  campaign  of  1776.  Vergennes  felt  that 
the  hour  was  not  yet  come,  and  ordered  the 
stores  which  had  already  been  put  on  shipboard 
to  be  detained.  Du  Coudray  sailed  alone  on  the 
14th  of  February,  1776.  Kalb  resolved  to  wait 
a  more  favorable  opportunity. 


130  KALB. 

And  now  I  have  a  story  to  tell  which  has  lain 
hidden  for  near  a  century  among  the  papers  of 
Kalb,  and  was  brought  to  light  by  the  exhaust 
ive  researches  of  Mr.  Kapp.  It  is  a  striking 
confirmation  of  the  importance  of  the  preserva 
tion  of  documents.  At  first  blush  it  seems  al 
most  too  strange  to  be  believed.  But  the  cir 
cumstances  under  which  it  was  found  leave  110 
doubt  of  its  authenticity.  It  throws  so  strong  a 
light  on  the  motives  by  which  some,  at  least,  of 
our  foreign  assistants  were  actuated,  that  I  should 
do  injustice  to  the  reader  were  I  to  weaken  it  by 
abridgment. 

"  I  have  seen  with  pleasure,"  writes  De  Broglie 
at  his  country  seat,  Ruffec,  the  llth  of  Decem 
ber,  "  from  the  relations  of  M.  Dubois  Martin, 
as  well  as  from  your  last  letter  of  the  5th  in 
stant,  the  good  progress  of  your  affairs,  and  hope 
that  all  your  wishes  will  continue  to  be  realized. 
You  may  rest  assured  that,  on  my  part,  I  shall 
not  neglect  your  interests,  which,  as  you  will  not 
fail  to  remember,  I  have  at  all  times  advocated, 
the  more  cheerfully  that  I  know  that  the  favor 
of  the  king  could  not  be  better  bestowed. 

"  I  do  not  doubt  that  the  plan  communicated 
to  you  by  M.  Dubois  meets  your  entire  approba 
tion.  It  is  clearly  indispensable  to  the  perma 
nence  of  the  work.  A  military  and  political 


KALE.  131 

leader  is  wanted,  —  a  man  fitted  to  carry  the- 
weight  of  authority  in  the  colony,  to  unite  its 
parties,  to  assign  to  each  his  place,  to  attract  a 
large  number  of  persons  of  all  classes  and  carry 
them  along  with  him,  not  courtiers,  but  brave, 
efficient,  and  well  educated  officers,  who  confide 
in  their  superior  and  repose  implicit  faith  in  him. 
There  need  not  be  many  grades  of  a  higher 
order  ;  but  there  is  need  of  some,  because  th& 
corps  and  the  country  are  separate  from  each 
other.  Not  but  what  there  is  room  enough  for 
a  number  of  persons  from  among  whom  a  selec 
tion  may  be  made.  The  main  point  of  the  mis 
sion  with  which  you  have  been  intrusted  will- 
therefore  consist  in  explaining  the  advantage, 
or  rather  the  absolute  necessity,  of  the  choice  of 
a  man  who  would  have  to  be  invested  with  the 
power  of  bringing  his  assistants  with  him  and 
of  assigning  to  each  the  position  for  which  he 
should  judge  him  to  be  fitted.  The  rank  of  the 
candidate  would  have  to  be  of  the  first  eminence  ; 
such,  however,  would  have  to  be  confined  to  the 
army,  excluding  the  civil  service,  with  perhaps 
the  single  exception  of  the  political  negotiations 
with  foreign  powers.  In  proposing  such  a  man, 
you  must  of  course  not  appear  to  know  whether 
he  entertains  any  wish  for  such  a  position  ;  but 
at  the  same  time  you  must  intimate  that  noth 
ing  but  the  most  favorable  stipulations  would  in- 


132  KALE. 

duce  him  to  make  the  sacrifices  expected  of  him. 
You  would  have  to  observe  that  three  years 
would  be  the  longest  period  for  which  he  could 
possibly  bind  himself,  that  he  would  claim  a 
fixed  salary,  to  continue  after  the  expiration  of 
that  period  of  service,  and  that  on  no  account 
would  he  consent  to  expatriate  himself  forever. 
What. should  make  you  particularly  explicit  on 
this  point  is,  that  the  assurance  of  the  man's 
return  to  France  at  the  end  of  three  years  will 
remove  every  apprehension  in  regard  to  the 
powers  to  be  conferred,  and  will  remove  even  the 
semblance  of  an  ambitious  design  to  become  the 
sovereign  of  the  new  republic. 

"  You  will  therefore  content  yourself  with  stip 
ulating  for  a  military  authority  for  the  person  in 
question,  who  would  unite  the  position  of  a  gen 
eral  and  president  of  the  council  of  war  with 
the  title  of  generalissimo,  field  marshal,  etc. 

"  Of  course,  large  pecuniary  considerations 
would  have  to  be  claimed  for  the  preparations 
for  the  journey,  and  for  the  journey  itself,  and  a 
liberal  salary  for  the  return  home,  much  in  the 
same  way  as  has  been  done  in  the  case  of  Prince 
Ferdinand.  You  can  give  the  assurance  that 
such  a  measure  will  bring  order  and  economy 
into  the  public  expenses,  that  it  will  reimburse 
its  cost  a  hundred  fold  in  a  single  campaign,  and 
that  the  choice  of  officers  who  follow  their  leader 


KALE.  133 

at  liis  word,  and  from  attachment  to  his  person, 
is  worth  more  than  the  reinforcement  of  the 
army  with  ten  or  twenty  thousand  men.  You 
well  know  the  persons  who  adhere  to  this  leader, 
and  the  unlimited  number  of  subalterns  ;  you 
know  that  they  are  not  courtiers,  but  excellent 
and  well  tried  soldiers  ;  you  know  better  than 
others  the  great  difference  between  the  one  can 
didate  and  the  other,  and  will  lay  particular 
stress  upon  this  point.  You  will  be  equally 
mindful  to  dwell  upon  the  effect  necessarily  pro 
duced  by  such  an  appointment  on  its  mere  an 
nouncement  in  Europe.  Even  in  a  good  Euro 
pean  army,  everything  depends  upon  the  selection 
of  a  good  commander-in -chief ;  how  much  more 
in  a  cause  where  everything  has  yet  to  be  created 
and  adjusted  !  It  is  not  easy  to  find  a  man  qual 
ified  for  such  a  task,  and  at  the  same  time  willing 
to  undertake  it.  If  matters  down  there  — '  1& 
bas  '  —  should  turn  out  well,  you  should  induce 
Congress  to  send  immediately  little  Dubois  back 
to  Mr.  Deane,  with  full  powers  and  directions. 
These  powers  should  be  limited  in  no  respect, 
except  in  so  far  as  to  remove  all  danger  of  a  too 
extensive  exercise  of  the  civil  authority  or  of 
ambitious  schemes  for  dominion  over  the  repub 
lic.  The  desire  is  to  be  useful  to  the  republic  in 
a  political  and  military  way,  but  with  all  the 
appropriate  honors,  dignities,  and  powers  over 


134  KALE. 

subordinate  functionaries ;  in  short,  with  a  well- 
ordered  power. 

"  If  you  send  back  little  Dubois,  advise  me  at 
the  same  time  of  the  true  condition  of  affairs 
and  of  the  state  of  public  feeling,  adding  your 
suggestions  of  what  is  best  to  be  done.  Also 
inform  me  of  the  nature  of  the  power  conferred 
,  upon  the  agents  of  the  insurgents.  Farewell !  I 
wish  you  and  your  caravan  a  pleasant  journey.  I 
shall  execute  your  commissions,  and  shall  see  M. 
de  Sartiges,  when  I  get  to  Paris. 

"  Acquaint  me  with  the  receipt  of  this  letter, 
and  with  the  moment  of  your  departure,  and 
write  to  me  under  the  direction  of  Abbe  St. 
Evrard,  at  the  bureau  of  M.  St.  Julien,  treasurer 
general  of  the  clergy.  I  leave  this  unsigned. 
You  know  who  I  am." 

It  is  hard  to  say  how  far  Kalb  shared  in  the 
delusion  of  his  patron.  His  knowledge  of  the 
colonies  was  the  result  of  personal  intercourse, 
and  is  so  correct  in  most  particulars  that  it  seems 
impossible  that  he  could  have  fallen  into  so  great 
an  error  upon  so  important  a  point  as  their  will 
ingness  to  put  a  foreigner  at  the  head  of  their 
government.  The  visions  of  power  and  wealth 
and  glory  which  dazzled  the  eyes  of  De  Broglie 
can  hardly  have  disturbed  the  imagination  of  the 
cool-headed  and  deliberate  German.  Yet  Silas 


KALB.  135 

Deane,  fresh  from  Congress,  believed  that  the 
young  nation,  distrustful  of  its  actual  leaders, 
would  gladly  put  a  general  of  approved  skill  at 
its  head.  The  affair  of  Du  Coudray  soon  taught 
him  better,  and  when  Kalb  reached  Philadel 
phia,  and  saw  what  grave  dissatisfaction  the  in 
troduction  of  foreigners  into  places  of  trust  and 
authority  awakened,  he  shut  up  in  his  portfolio 
the  record  of  his  patron's  ignorance  and  presump 
tion.  The  secret,  so  wounding  to  the  French 
general's  vanity,  was  well  kept,  and  no  attempt 
was  made  to  carry  out  the  foolish  and  impracti 
cable  scheme. 

The  closing  days  of  1776  were  not  favorable  to 
the  American  cause  in  France.  None  but  the 
bad  news  from  the  American  army  had  reached 
Europe.  The  brilliant  movements  on  Trenton 
and  Princeton  were  unknown,  and  the  American 
cause,  if  not  desperate,  was  looked  upon  as  too 
doubtful  to  justify  so  bold  an  intervention  as  the 
transmission  of  arms  in  French  bottoms,  even 
though  it  was  ostensibly  made  for  the  service  of 
the  French  colonies.  Lord  Stormont's  remon 
strances  were  loud  and  apparently  successful. 
Kalb  returned  to  Paris  to  await  a  more  auspi 
cious  moment. 

His  name  now  becomes  intimately  associated 
with  the  name  of  Lafayette.  It  was  a  profitable 
union  for  both.  Kalb  had  age,  experience,  and 


136  KALE. 

practical  knowledge  ;  Lafayette,  wealth,  high 
rank,  and  the  ardor  and  enthusiasm  of  youth. 
Both  had  firmness  of  purpose  and  strong  wills. 
For  them  the  expedition  possessed  a  singular 
charm  :  the  charm  of  generous  sympathy  and  ro 
mantic  adventure  for  the  young  man,  of  military 
distinction  and  honorable  activity  for  the  old. 
They  resolved  that  the  temporary  delay  should 
not  prevent  them  from  carrying  out  their  plan. 
Lafayette  had  serious  obstacles  to  apprehend 
from  the  opposition  of  his  family,  especially  from 
that  of  his  father-in-law,  the  Duke  d'Ayen.  At 
his  request,  in  fact,  rather  than  from  any  political 
considerations,  the  ardent  young  nobleman  was 
ordered  to  renounce  his  project  and  travel  in  Italy 
with  his  family.  In  a  conversation  with  the 
Comte  de  Broglie,  in  which  Kalb  and  the  count's 
secretary,  Dubois  Martin,  took  a  part,  it  was 
resolved  that  Lafayette  should  buy  and  freight  a 
ship,  and  sail  without  delay  for  the  colonies,  Kalb 
and  eleven  officers  accompanying  him.  Kalb's 
letters  to  his  wife  contain  a  minute  history  of  the 
embarrassments,  both  small  and  great,  which  de 
layed  their  embarkation.  At  length,  on  the  20th 
of  April,  they  sailed,  and  on  the  13th  of  June 
made  land  on  the  coast  of  South  Carolina. 

It  may  not  be  undeserving  of  remark  that 
Lafayette,  one  of  the  earliest  of  abolitionists, 
should  have  been  brought  for  the  first  time  into 


KALB.  137 

contact  with  slavery  on  his  first  landing  in  the 
country  in  which  he  first  fought  the  battles  of 
freedom.  The  captain  was  out  in  his  reckoning 
and  did  not  know  where  he  was.  Lafayette  and 
Kalb,  with  one  of  their  companions  and  seven 
sailors,  took  to  the  boat  and  rowed  towards  the 
shore  to  look  for  a  pilot.  The  first  persons  they 
met  were  three  negro  oystermen,  who  could  only 
tell  them  that  they  belonged  to  a  major  in  the 
American  army,  and  that  the  coast  was  infested 
by  hostile  cruisers.  The  negroes  guided  them  to 
their  master's  house.  They  reached  it  about 
ten  in  the  evening,  and  were  received  with  char 
acteristic  hospitality.  There  was  much  to  ask  and 
to  tell.  Huger,  for  that  was  the  major's  name, 
told  the  progress  of  the  war.  Kalb  and  Lafayette 
could  speak  of  the  public  sentiment  in  France,  to 
which  American  eyes  were  turned  with  such  deep 
anxiety.  It  was  an  auspicious  beginning  of  their 
adventurous  career. 

From  Huger's  hospitable  mansion  they  pro 
ceeded  to  Charleston,  where  their  ship  had  al 
ready  arrived,  and,  disposing  profitably  of  the 
cargo,  hastened  towards  Philadelphia  with  as 
much  speed  as  the  heat  of  July  would  permit. 
The  day  after  their  arrival  they  presented  them 
selves  at  the  door  of  Congress  ;  and  now,  for  the 
first  time,  they  saw  what  trouble  Deane  had 
caused  by  his  unauthorized  promises  of  rank  and 


138  KALE. 

high  pay  to  foreigners.  Du  Coudray's  position 
was  still  equivocal,  and  here  was  a  new  body  to 
provide  for,  three  of  them  major-generals.  The 
president  of  Congress  referred  them  to  Mr.  Lov- 
ell,  chairman  of  the  committee  of  foreign  affairs, 
who,  receiving  their  letters  and  recommendations, 
told  them  that  Congress  had  refused  to  ratify 
the  agreements  made  by  Mr.  Deane.  They  had 
come  at  an  unfortunate  moment.  Du  Coudray's 
arrogant  claims  had  raised  a  general  ferment  of 
indignation.  Congress  was  fast  losing  the  confi 
dence  of  the  army.  Greene,  Knox,  and  Sullivan 
had  offered  their  resignations.  Would  it  be  just 
or  even  safe  to  accept  them,  and  fill  their  places 
with  foreigners  ?  Congress  resolved  to  make  the 
best  of  its  awkward  position.  It  was  resolved 
that  the  officers  for  whom  no  provision  could  be 
made  should  have  their  expenses  paid,  and  return 
home.  Lafayette  asked  to  be  allowed  to  serve 
as  a  volunteer  and  without  pay.  He  had  brought 
private  letters  from  Franklin,  as  well  as  Deane, 
which  called  attention  to  the  moral  strength 
which  his  name  would  give  to  the  American 
cause  in  France.  His  prayer  was  granted,  and 
he  received  the  commission  of  major-general. 
But  his  generous  nature  did  not  allow  him  to 
stop  here.  He  felt  himself  drawn  towards  Kalb 
by  a  sense  of  gratitude,  and  a  conviction  that  the 
services  of  the  experienced  soldier  would  be  very 


KALB.  139 

useful  to  the  half-trained  army  of  the  new  re 
public.  He  resolved  to  use  all  his  influence 
to  secure  them,  and  assured  his  friend  that  he 
would  not  accept  his  own  commission  unless  one 
of  equal  rank  should  be  given  to  him.  With 
equal  generosity  Kalb  refused  the  offer,  and  ad 
vised  the  young  general  to  join  the  army  with 
out  delay. 

The  position  of  Congress  was  a  difficult  one, 
even  for  very  wise  men.  To  ratify  Deane's  con 
tracts  would  be  not  only  to  offend  their  own  offi 
cers,  and  through  them  their  immediate  constitu 
ents,  but,  what  could  not  be  done  without  danger, 
it  would  put  the  most  important  positions  in  the 
army  in  the  hands  of  foreigners,  who  had  no  other 
interest  in  the  contest  than  that  of  pay  and  rank. 
The  contracts,  on  the  other  hand,  were  technic 
ally  binding,  and  if  brought  before  a  court  would 
be  decided  against  the  Congress.  Another  point 
also  required  their  careful  consideration.  Without 
the  aid  and  sympathy  of  France  it  would  be  im 
possible  for  them  to  obtain  arms  and  military 
stores  in  the  quantity  which  their  needs  required. 
The  commerce  with  England,  whence  the  colo 
nies  had  drawn  their  annual  supplies  for  house  and 
home,  was  broken  off,  and  they  looked  to  that  of 
France  and  Spain  for  a  compensation.  To  send  a 
body  of  discontented  officers  home  to  tell  in  every 
coffee-house  that  the  young  nation  had  begun  its 


140  KALE. 

career  by  violating  a  solemn  contract  would  have 
dulled  the  edge  of  sympathy  and  excited  the  sus 
picions  of  commerce.  The  discarded  officers  took 
their  disappointment  to  heart,  and  even  the  cool 
and  judicious  Kalb  gave  vent  to  his  indignation 
in  a  bitter  letter  to  the  president  of  Congress. 
But  bitterly  as  Kalb  felt  on  this  occasion,  he  had 
seen  too  much  of  the  world  not  to  feel  that  Con 
gress  was  substantially  in  the  right,  and  that  an 
army  commanded  by  foreigners  would  be  a  dan 
gerous  foundation  to  build  upon  in  a  civil  war. 
In  a  letter  to  his  wife,  to  whom  he  seems  to 
have  communicated  all  his  thoughts  and  feelings, 
with  the  utmost  confidence,  he  acknowledges  that 
"  his  company  was  too  numerous  and  invested 
with  too  many  positions  of  a  high  grade  not  to 
have  excited  the  natural  discontent  of  the  Amer 
ican  officers."  In  this  dangerous  dilemma  Con 
gress  took  the  wisest  course,  disavowed  Deane, 
and  assumed  the  expenses  of  the  rejected  offi 
cers.  Kalb  was  employed  to  arrange  and  pre 
sent  their  accounts,  which  were  accepted  and 
promptly  paid. 

Meanwhile  the  shrewd  diplomatist  had  not 
passed  so  many  weeks  in  Philadelphia  in  vain. 
Part  of  the  time,  it  is  true,  he  was  confined  to  a 
sick  bed,  but  even  that  was  a  means  of  bringing 
him  into  personal  contact  with  some  of  the  lead 
ing  members  of  government.  No  one  could  con- 


KALE.  141 

verse  with  him  often  without  being  convinced  of 
his  fine  parts,  extensive  observation,  and  sound 
judgment.  As  these  gentlemen  compared  their 
observations,  they  became  convinced  that  Kalb 
was  too  valuable  a  man  to  be  rejected.  Ac 
cordingly  Congress  resolved  to  appoint  another 
major-general,  and  offered  the  commission  to 
him,  with  the  same  date  as  that  of  Lafayette. 
The  offer  found  him  at  Bethlehem,  where  he  was 
making  a  visit  to  his  Moravian  brethren.  His 
first  impulse  was  to  reject  it,  for  he  did  not  know 
in  what  light  his  acceptance  would  be  looked 
upon  by  his  patrons,  the  De  Broglies,  and  the 
officers  who  had  accompanied  him.  Further  re 
flection  convinced  him  that  there  was  no  good 
reason  for  a  refusal.  On  the  13th  of  October  he 
set  out  for  the  army. 

He  was  welcomed  by  the  officers  as  a  brother 
in  arms.  Con  way  alone,  who  was  already  en 
gaged  in  the  infamous  cabal  which  bears  his 
name,  looked  coldly  upon  him,  complaining  that 
Kalb  had  been  his  inferior  in  France  and  could 
not  justly  be  allowed  to  outrank  him  here.  But 
Conway  was  already  well  known  in  the  army,  and 
little  importance  was  attached  to  his  opinion,  al 
though  in  Congress  he  had  friends  enough  to  pro 
cure  him  the  coveted  promotion,  even  in  direct 
opposition  to  the  avowed  wishes  of  Washington. 
Kalb's  story  now  becomes  closely  interwoven  with 


142  KALE. 

the  story  of  the  war.     He  was  sent  in  November, 
with  St.  Clair  and  Knox,  to  examine  the  fortifi 
cations  of  Red  Bank,  by  which  Washington  still 
hoped  to  starve  Howe  out  of  Philadelphia.     He 
was  present  at  the  council  of   war  which  was 
called  to  decide  upon  the  propriety  of  an  attack 
upon  Philadelphia,  and  voted  with  the  majority 
against  it.     Fortunately  for  the  historian  he  was 
as  fond  of  his  pen  as  of  his  sword,  and  his  mi 
nute  and   frequent  letters  to  his  wife  and  the 
Comte  de  Broglie  are  full  of  history,  and  valua 
ble  not  merely  as  a  record  of  events  but  of  opin 
ions.     It  was  some  time  before  he  was   able  to 
form  a  correct  idea  of  Washington.     His  per 
sonal  qualities  he  was  struck  with  at  once ;  but 
the  campaign  of  77  had  not  been  a  brilliant  one, 
and  mistakes  had  been  made  which  he  errone 
ously  laid  at  the  door  of  the  commander-in-chief. 
"  I  have  not  yet  told  you  anything  of  the  char 
acter  of  General  Washington,"  he  writes  to  the 
Comte  de   Broglie,  on  the  24th  of   September. 
"  He  is  the  most  amiable,  kind-hearted  and  up 
right  of  men  ;  but  as  a  general  he  is  too  indolent, 
too  slow,  and  far  too  weak ;  besides  he  has  a  tinge 
of  vanity  in  his  composition,  and  overestimates 
himself.    In  my  opinion,  whatever  success  he  may 
have  will  be  owing  to  good  luck  and  to  the  blun 
ders  of  his  adversaries  rather  than  to  his  abilities. 
I  may  even  say  that  he  does  not  know  how  to 


KALB.  143 

improve  even  upon  the  grossest  blunders  of  the 
enemy.  He  has  not  yet  overcome  his  old  preju 
dices  against  the  French."  This  language  sounds 
strangely  as  applied  to  Washington ;  yet  it  is 
historically  important  to  know  that  it  was  act 
ually  used.  If  we  inquire  when,  we  shall  find 
that  it  was  at  the  time  of  the  Conway  cabal,  when 
Washington's  enemies  were  bold  and  loud,  al 
though  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  Kalb 
was  in  any  way  connected  with  them. 

A  few  weeks  later  his  opinion  is  materially 
modified.  "  He  is  the  bravest  and  truest  of  men," 
he  writes,  "has  the  best  intentions  and  a  sound 
judgment.  I  am  convinced  that  he  would  ac 
complish  substantial  results  if  he  would  only  act 
more  upon  his  own  responsibility  ;  but  it  is  a  pity 
that  he  is  so  weak  and  has  the  worst  of  advisers 
in  the  men  who  enjoy  his  confidence."  He  had 
already  written:  "It  is  unfortunate  that  Wash 
ington  is  so  easily  led."  This  is  nearly  the  lan 
guage  of  Lee  and  Reed  a  year  before.  They  had 
all  mistaken  for  want  of  decision  the  self -distrust 
which  arose  from  a  consciousness  of  inexperience. 
It  was  not  long  before  Kalb's  opinion  was  still 
farther  modified.  "  He  must  be  a  very  modest 

man He  did  and  does  more  every  day  than 

could  be  expected  from  any  general  in  the  world 
in  the  same  circumstances,  and  I  think  him  the 
only  proper  [person  (nobody  actually  being  or 


144  KALE. 

serving  in  America  excepted),  by  his  natural  and 
acquired  capacity,  his  bravery,  good  sense,  up 
rightness,  and  honesty,  to  keep  up  the  spirits  of  the 
army  and  people,  and  I  look  upon  him  as  the 
sole  defender  of  his  country's  cause.  Thus  much 
I  thought  myself  obliged  to  say  on  that  head.  I 
only  could  wish,  in  my  private  opinion,  he  would 
take  more  upon  himself,  and  trust  more  to  his 
own  excellent  judgm.ent  than  to  councils."  This 
language  was  a  decided  renunciation  of  the 
schemes  of  De  Broglie.  "If  I  return  to  Eu 
rope,"  he  writes  to  the  count  himself,  "  it  will  be 
with  the  greatest  mortification,  as  it  is  impossible 
to  execute  the  great  design  I  have  so  gladly  come 
to  subserve.  M.  de  Valfort  will  tell  you  that  the 
project  in  question  is  totally  impracticable :  it 
would  be  regarded  no  less  as  an  act  of  crying  in 
justice  towards  Washington,  than  as  an  outrage 
on  the  honor  of  the  country." 

Kalb  was  with  the  army  during  its  last  oper 
ations  before  Philadelphia,  and  its  bleak  winter 
encampment  at  Valley  Forge.  He  was  restless 
and  dissatisfied.  Among  his  many  hard  expe 
riences  this  was  the  hardest.  His  judgment  as 
a  scientific  soldier  was  offended.  His  aspira 
tions  for  military  distinction  were  thwarted. 
He  longed  for  the  well  clad  and  thoroughly  dis 
ciplined  armies  with  which  he  had  fought  under 
Saxe  and  against  Frederick.  He  pours  out  his 


KALE.  145 

soul  to  his  wife  and  his  friend,  and  there  was  a- 
great  deal  of  bitterness  in  it.    Like  all  his  letters, 
those  of  this  period  are  full  of  materials  for  his 
tory.     He  writes  with  freedom  of  acts  and  opin 
ions,  often  using  strong  expressions,  though  sel 
dom  speaking  of  persons  by  name.    He  condemns 
in  unmeasured  terms  the  choice  of  encampment, 
saying  that  none  bat  an  enemy  of  the  command- 
er-in-chief   could   have  advised  him   to  risk  his 
army  in  such  a  position.     His  picture  of  camp- 
life  is  almost  a  satire.     He  hardly  seems  to  know 
how  to  speak  of  the  love  for  titles  which  makes 
every  man  a  colonel ;   or  of  the  love  of  display 
which  wearied  the  troops  with  unprofitable  pa 
rades,  and  led  officers  of  every  grade  to  strip  the 
ranks  in  order  to  secure  a  full  array  of  unneces 
sary  servants.     The  expense  of  living  he  finds 
enormous,  and  believes  that  many  bills  are  paid 
which  will  not  bear  examination.     "  I  am  the- 
only  general,"  he  writes,  "  who  practices  econ 
omy.     Nevertheless,  at  the  last  camp  I  had  to 
pay  my  purveyor  of  milk  and  butter  two  hun 
dred  and  forty-two  francs  for  the  consumption  of 
two  weeks."     He  does  not  know  what  his  pay  is, 
whether  a  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  a  month  or 
two  hundred,  bat  whichever  it  may  be  it  will  be 
paid   in   paper  and   subjected   to   a  discount  of 
four  hundred  per  cent,  before  he  can  get  silver 
for  it.     The  contractors  make,  he  has  no  doubt, 
10 


146  KALE. 

fifty  per  cent,  on  their  contracts  ;  and  throughout 
the  whole  department  of  supplies  he  finds  a  dan 
gerous  spirit  of  peculation.  Nothing,  however, 
gives  him  greater  pain  than  the  jealousies  and 
bickerings  of  the  French  officers.  Few  as  they 
comparatively  were,  they  were  divided  into  par 
ties,  and  embittered  against  each  other  by  an  in 
tolerant  party  spirit.  The  only  exception  was 
Lafayette,  who,  attaching  himself  to  Washing 
ton,  seemed  to  have  no  other  view  than  the  suc 
cess  of  the  cause  to  which  he  had  dedicated  his 
fortune  and  life.  "I  always  meet  him,"  Kalb 
writes,  "  with  the  same  cordiality  and  the  same 
pleasure.  He  is  an  excellent  young  man,  and 
we  are  good  friends.  It  were  to  be  wished  that 
.all  the  Frenchmen  who  serve  here  were  as  rea 
sonable  as  he  and  I.  Lafayette  is  much  liked ; 
he  is  on  the  best  of  terms  with  Washington ; 
both  of  them  have  every  reason  to  be  satisfied 
with  me  also."  With  Greene  and  Knox  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  formed  any  close  association, 
even  if  he  did  not  go  further  and  avoid  them  as 
Washington's  evil  counselors. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  the  winter  at  Valley  Forge 
was  a  trying  winter  to  Kalb.  He  could  not 
adapt  himself  to  American  camp  life,  and,  what 
tried  him  yet  more,  he  could  not  see  those 
prospects  of  laurels  in  it  which  had  been  his 
chief  aim  in  coming  to  America.  Then  came 


KALB.  147 

rumors  of  European  wars,  and  visions  of  hon 
ors  won  under  his  old  commander,  De  Broglie, 
began  to  float  before  his  dazzled  eyes.  Then 
his  diplomatic  ambition  was  awakened,  and  he 
thought  it  would  be  a  pleasant  thing  to  be  the 
French  envoy  to  Congress,  or  to  represent  France 
in  Protestant  Geneva.  Sometimes,  also,  while 
he  wrote  to  his  wife,  he  longed  for  more  tranquil 
scenes  and  a  purer  happiness ;  he  would  throw 
up  his  commission  and  go  home  to  live  with 
her  and  their  children.  Dreams,  all  of  them. 
The  weeks  and  months  passed  on,  and  every  day 
the  fetters  which  his  ambition  had  forged  grew 
firmer. 

But  the  winter  was  not  altogether  an  inactive 
one.  It  was  the  winter  of  the  Conway  cabal,  and 
Kalb's  good  sense  led  him  to  the  side  of  Wash 
ington.  From  the  Conway  cabal  sprang  the  ex 
pedition  to  Canada,  framed  solely  to  detach  La 
fayette  from  the  commander-in-chief.  The  snare 
was  avoided  by  Lafayette's  insisting  upon  Kalb 
instead  of  Conway  for  the  second  in  command. 
When  the  two  generals  reached  Albany,  they 
found  that  no  preparations  had  been  made  for 
the  opening  of  the  campaign ;  neither  men  nor 
stores  had  been  collected.  It  was  too  late  to  be 
gin,  and  they  returned  to  camp.  During  this 
fruitless  expedition  Kalb  was  brought  more  di 
rectly  into  collision  with  Conway,  who,  claim- 


148  KALE. 

ing  to  have  outranked  him  in   France,  claimed 
not  to  be  outranked  by  him  here. 

Meanwhile  came  the  tidings  of  the  French  al 
liance,  which  seemed  to  make  the  victory  of  the 
Americans  sure.  They  were  received  in  camp 
with  great  exultation,  and  a  day  set  apart  for 
public  rejoicing.  On  this  occasion  Kalb  com 
manded  the  centre,  and  Lafayette  the  left  wing. 
A  council  of  war  was  called  to  decide  how  this 
accession  of  a  great  ally  could  be  made  avail 
able.  "  But  for  the  late  treaty,"  Kalb  writes  to 
his  wife  on  the  25th  of  May,  1778,  "  I  should 
have  returned  to  you  ere  this.  Now  I  cannot  and 
will  not  do  it  for  various  reasons,  two  of  which  I 
shall  here  specify.  In  the  first  place,  war  between 
England  and  France  having  become  inevitable, 
should  I  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  English  while 
at  sea  my  treatment  would  be  that  of  a  French 
prisoner  of  war,  possibly  without  a  claim  to  being 
exchanged,  inasmuch  as  I  should  have  left  Amer 
ica  without  leave  from  my  own  government.  In 
the  second  place,  the  alliance  with  the  United 
States  transforms  me  from  an  officer  on  two  years' 
furlough  into  a  general  of  the  French  army, 
with  the  same,  if  not  a  better,  title  to  promotion 
than  if  I  had  never  quitted  France.  Hencefor 
ward,  therefore,  I  shall  only  return  by  express 
command  of  the  minister." 

Kalb  was  one  of  those  who  thought  the  con- 


KALB.  149 

test  virtually  ended  by  the  alliance  with  France. 
"  Since  France  has  interfered  in  the  war,"  he 
writes  to  his  wife,  on  the  7th  of  October,  "  the 
subjugation  of  the  continent  by  the  English  is  out 
of  the  question.  Possibly  they  will  even  surren 
der  Rhode  Island,  New  York,  Long  Island,  and 
Staten  Island,  to  defend  their  own  country  and 
their  remaining  colonies.  At  all  events,  there 
will  be  no  more  movements  of  importance.  I 
therefore  regard  the  war  as  ended,  as  far  as  I 
am  concerned,  having  no  disposition  to  do  battle 
against  the  savages  on  the  frontier."  But  his 
conjecture  was  not  realized.  It  was  not  merely 
her  rebellious  colonies  that  were  in  arms  against 
England,  but  her  rival  and  natural  enemy,  France. 
The  same  narrow  policy  which  had  cost  so  much 
blood  and  treasure  was  desperately  clung  to  in 
this  day  of  trial  and  danger,  and  although  there 
could  be  but  one  end  to  such  a  war,  she  declared 
war  against  France.  For  four  more  campaigns 
Kalb  remained  with  the  army,  sharing  all  its 
hardships,  but  by  a  singular  fatality  not  being 
present  at  any  of  its  battles.  Among  its  hard 
ships  was  that  of  the  second  winter  encampment 
at  Morristown,  when  the  ice  in  the  Hudson 
was  six  feet  thick,  and  cavalry  and  heavy  ord 
nance  went  from  New  York  to  Staten  Island  on 
it.  These  were  not  the  laurels  which  Kalb  had 
left  his  pleasant  home  and  beautiful  wife  to  win. 


150  KALE. 

His  patience  was  sorely  tried.  "  As  often  as  a 
Frenchman  returns  home,"  he  writes  to  his  wife, 
"  my  heart  is  ready  to  burst  with  homesickness." 
New  campaigns  come  and  go  monotonously.  I 
shall  not  follow  his  steps  in  detail,  but  content 
myself  with  gathering  a  few  side  lights  to  bring 
out  the  characteristic  points  of  my  picture  more 
faithfully. 

"What  I  am  doing  here,"  he  writes  to  his 
wife  on  the  15th  of  July,  "  is  extremely  disa 
greeable.  Without  my  excellent  constitution,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  bear  up  long  under  this 
service.  Yesterday  I  made  the  most  wearisome 
trip  of  my  life,  visiting  the  posts  and  pickets  of 
the  army  in  the  solitudes,  woods,  and  mountains, 
clambering  over  the  rocks,  and  picking  my  way 
in  the  most  abominable  roads.  My  horse  having 
fallen  lame,  I  had  to  make  the  whole  distance  on 
foot.  I  never  suffered  more  from  heat.  On  my 
return  I  had  not  a  dry  rag  on  me,  and  was  so 
tired  that  I  could  not  sleep.  My  temperate  and 
simple  habits  greatly  contribute  to  keep  me  in 
good  health.  My  general  health  is  very  good, 
and  I  hardly  notice  the  annoyances  of  camp 
life.  Dry  bread  and  water  make  my  breakfast 
and  supper ;  at  dinner  I  take  some  meat.  I 
drink  nothing  but  water,  never  coffee,  and  rarely 
chocolate  or  tea,  in  order  to  avoid  irritating  my 
eyes,  which  are  the  more  useful  to  me  as  my  four 


KALE.  151 

aids,  partly  from  ignorance  and  partly  from  lazi 
ness,  leave  the  writing  incident  to  the  service  un 
attended  to.  So  I  am  compelled  to  do  it  all  my 
self,  while  they  cultivate  their  digestions.  I  have 
now  no  more  earnest  wish  than  soon  to  see  you  and 
the  children  again,  and  never  to  leave  you  more. 
If  our  separation  is  destined  to  be  of  any  advan 
tage  to  us,  it  is  dearly  paid  for." 

Earnest  as  this  longing  for  home  unquestion 
ably  was,  it  may  well  be  doubted  whether  a  few 
weeks  of  domestic  repose  would  not  have  brought 
back  his  yearning  for  active  life. 

Tro^eecTKe  8'  avr^v  re.  TrroXe/xov  re. 
For  well  lie  loved  clamor  and  combat. 

He  bears  emphatic  testimony  to  the  barbarity 
with  which  the  war  was  carried  on  on  the  part 
of  the  enemy.  The  English  peace  commission 
ers  had  threatened  it  when  they  saw  that  their 
mission  had  failed,  and  Sir  Henry  Clinton  did  not 
scruple  to  put  the  threat  in  execution.  "  General 
Clinton,"  Kalb  writes,  "having  left  a  garrison 
in  New  York,  is  amusing  himself  with  plunder 
ing,  burning,  and  ravaging.  Fairneld,  Bedford, 
Norwalk,  New  Haven,  and  West  Haven  have  al 
ready  felt  his  rage.  The  mode  of  warfare  here 
practiced  is  the  most  barbarous  that  could  be 
conceived  ;  whatever  the  enemy  cannot  carry  off 
in  their  forays  is  destroyed  or  burned.  They 


152  KALE. 

cannot  possibly  triumph  in  the  end.  Their  cru 
elty  and  inhumanity,  must  sooner  or  later  draw 
down  upon  their  heads  the  vengeance  of  Heaven, 
and  blast  a  government  which  authorizes  these 
outrages."  Such  words  from  an  officer  who  had 
gone  through  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  seen 
with  his  own  eyes  the  inhumanity  with  which  it 
was  waged,  afford  a  strong  confirmation  of  the 
charges  which  the  Americans  brought  against  the 
English. 

We  have  seen  that  there  was  a  great  mystery 
hanging  over  Kalb's  education.  From  this  point 
of  view  the  following  passage  has  a  peculiar 
interest.  "  Yesterday,"  he  writes  in  the  letter 
from  which  I  last  quoted,  "  I  was  reconnoitring 
all  day  in  the  vicinity  of  my  post,  of  course  on 
foot;  I  must  repeat  the  same  operation  forthwith, 
in  order  to  be  familiar  with  my  position  by  din 
ner  time Though  very  tired  I  have  already 

returned  from  my  excursion,"  he  continues  at  four 
o'clock  of  the  same  day,  "  and  I  have  just  dined. 
The  staff  officers  of  my  division  were  my  guests. 
We  were  all  very  hungry,  and  did  full  justice  to 
the  mutton  and  beef  which  constituted  the  re 
past  ;  large  round  crackers  served  as  plates  in  the 
absence  of  any  kind  of  crockery.  The  scene 
forcibly  reminded  me  of  the  conquest  of  Italy  by 
jEneas,  and  the  words  of  Ascanius,  when  they 
had  reached  the  future  site  of  Rome.  There, 


KALB.  153 

too,  hunger  compelled  them  to  devour  the  cakes 
upon  which  their  food  had  been  served  up,  and 
recalled  the  oracle  of  the  harpies,  that  they  would 
not  reach  the  end  of  their  wanderings  and  toils, 
nor  call  Italy  theirs,  until  they  should  have  eaten 
their  tables  with  their  meals.  I  have,  unfortu 
nately,  no  Ascanius  with  me,  but  I  desire  most 
ardently  that  my  fate  may  be  decided  as  was 
that  of  JSneas,  that  the  independence  of  America, 
like  the  conquest  of  Italy,  may  now  be  realized, 
and  that,  after  we  too  have  eaten  our  tables,  the 
close  of  our  warfare  and  toils  may  be  likewise 
approaching." 

It  is  pleasant  to  find  a  burst  of  enthusiasm  in 
so  deliberate  a  man  as  Kalb.  A  letter  from 
Washington,  announcing  the  capture  of  Stony 
Point,  came  while  his  party  was  still  at  table. 
"  I  drank  no  wine,"  he  writes,  "  as  the  others  did, 
yet  I  was  carried  away  by  the  same  enthusiasm. 
I  called  Mr.  Jacob,  and  told'  him  to  bring  me  a 
bottle  of  champagne.  He  stared  at  me  with 
astonishment,  saying  he  had  none.  '  Then  there 
must  be  some  port  wine  at  least  ?  '  4  That  is  on 
the  baggage  wagons.'  I  apologized  for  my  defect 
ive  memory,  and  was  sorry  to  have  tantalized 
the  company  with  delusive  hopes  ;  but  they  were 
satisfied  to  take  my  good  will  for  the  deed.  I 
promised  all  my  guests  to  give  them  the  best  of 
champagne  at  Paris,  and  shall  be  delighted  to 
keep  my  word." 


154  KALB. 

We  meet  another  trait,  in  these  letters,  worth 
remembering  :  "  The  taking  of  Stony  Point  forms 
an  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  war  of  American 
independence,  because  it  was  on  this  occasion 
that  our  troops  first  ventured  to  attack  the  in- 
trenchments  of  the  enemy,  and  because  they  dis 
played  great  valor  in  doing  so.  The  action 
lasted  only  twenty-five  minutes.  A  hundred  or 
a  hundred  and  twenty  of  the  British  were  killed 
and  wounded,  while  we  had  thirty  killed  and 
sixty  wounded.  I  mean  to  tell  the  truth,  in  spite 
of  what  the  newspapers  will  say  about  our  losses, 
greatly  exaggerating,  of  course,  the  number  of  the 
fallen  foe,  and  cutting  down  our  own  casualties. 
But  I  am  unable  to  appreciate  the  subtlety  of 
this  system  of  lies  told  by  everybody  and  believed 
by  no  one,  and  prefer  to  comfort  myself  with  the 
well  tried  proverb,  c  On  ne  fait  point  d'omme- 
lette  sans  casser  des  ceufs.'  '  (You  cannot  make 
an  omelet  without  breaking  some  eggs.) 

From  the  French  alliance  to  the  spring  of  1780, 
Kalb  was  constantly  with  the  army,  sharing  all 
its  hardships,  cold,  hunger,  fatigue,  the  nights 
on  a  camp-stool  or  on  the  bare  ground,  clothes 
falling  about  him  in  rags,  and  his  ink  freezing  in 
his  pen  as  he  writes  close  by  the  fire.  He  resolves 
to  go  to  Philadelphia  to  buy  clothes.  He  has  to 
pay  four  hundred  dollars  for  a  hat,  for  a  pair  of 
boots  the  same,  and  other  things  in  proportion. 


KALB.  155 

He  wants  a   good  horse,  but  is  asked   a  price 
equivalent  to  ten  years  of  his  pay,  and  therefore 
falls   back  on  his  old  stock.     His  letters  to  his 
wife  are  filled  with  interesting  details,  some  of 
them  not  very  creditable  to  the  public  spirit  of 
the  times.    His  division  was  composed  of  one  reg 
iment  from  Delaware  and  seven  from  Maryland, 
divided  into  two  brigades,  the  first  under  Small- 
wood  and  all  Marylanders,  the  second  under  Gist, 
and  containing  three  Maryland  and  one  Dela 
ware  regiment ;  two  thousand  and  thirty  men  in 
all.     From  time  to  time  some  of  the  States  sent 
their  officers  supplies  of  a  kind  which  could  not 
be  found  in  the  market,  coffee,  cognac,  tea,  and 
sugar.      As  commanding  officer,  Kalb  would  be 
entitled  to  a  share,  but  Smallwood,  violating  both 
the  laws  of  military  subordination  and  the  laws 
of  good  breeding,  set  a  watch  over  them  to  pre 
vent  any  of  them  from  going  into  the  hands  of 
Kalb,  who,  he  said,  not  being  a  Marylander,  had 
no  right  to  them.      Fortunately  not  all  of   our 
officers  were  so  chuiiy  or  so  ignorant  of  the  pro 
prieties  of  life. 

"  My  march,"  he  writes  to  a  German  friend 
from  Petersburg,  Virginia,  when  on  his  way  to 
reinforce  the  southern  army,  "my  march  costs 
me  enormous  sums.  I  'cannot  travel  with  my 
equipage,  I  am  therefore  compelled  to  resort  to 
inns.  My  six  months'  earnings  will  scarce  defray 


156  KALE. 

the  most  indispensable  outlay  of  a  single  day. 
Not  long  since  I  was  compelled  to  take  a  night's 
lodging  at  a  private  house.  For  a  bed,  supper, 
and  grog  for  myself,  my  three  companions,  and 
three  servants  I  was  charged,  on  going  off  with 
out  a  breakfast  next  day,  the  sum  of  eight  hun 
dred  and  fifty  dollars.  The  lady  of  the  house 
politely  added  that  she  had  charged  nothing  for 
the  rooms,  and  would  leave  the  compensation  for 
them  to  my  discretion,  although  three  or  four 
hundred  dollars  would  not  be  too  much  for  the 
inconvenience  to  which  she  had  been  put  by  my 
self  and  my  followers."  No  wonder  that  he 
should  add,  "  And  these  are  the  people  who  talk 
of  sacrificing  their  all  in  the  cause  of  liberty." 

I  give  these  details  with  reluctance,  but  I  feel 
myself  bound  to  give  them,  because  they  are  a 
part  of  the  history  of  the  times.  Those  who  look 
upon  the  history  of  our  war  of  independence  as 
an  unqualified  history  of  generous  sacrifices,  take 
a  false  view  of  the  subject.  Base  and  ignoble 
passions  manifested  themselves  by  the  side  of  the 
noblest  passions.  Some  men  were  always  true, 
as  some  were  always  false.  We  had  but  one 
Arnold,  but  we  had  many  lesser  villains,  who 
played  the  spy  on  both  sides,  sometimes  fought 
on  both  sides,  and  grew  rich  by  speculating  upon 
the  necessities  of  their  country.  Our  national 
history,  like  the  early  history  of  Rome,  has  suf 
fered  greatly  from  apocryphal  heroism. 


KALE.  157 

Meanwhile  a  change  had  taken  place  in  the 
strategy  of  the  British  general.  Experience  had 
shown  the  impossibility  of  conquering  the  Amer 
icans  by  the  north.  He  resolved  to  carry  the 
war  into  the  south.  Savannah  was  taken ;  siege 
was  laid  to  Charleston.  Lincoln,  who  was  in 
command  in  the  south,  called  earnestly  for  rein 
forcements  ;  and,  on  the  3d  of  April,  Kalb  was 
ordered  to  march  with  his  division  to  the  succor 
of  the  besieged  city.  It  was  a  long  and  weary 
march,  during  which  men  and  officers  were  ex 
posed  to  great  hardships.  It  was  an  occasion, 
also,  which  called  out  Kalb's  military  and  execu 
tive  talents  to  the  best  advantage.  Supplies  of 
all  kinds  were  wanted,  and  he  hurried  on  to 
Philadelphia  to  urge  upon  Congress  the  necessity 
of  employing  all  its  authority  in  order  to  collect 
them.  The  means  of  transportation,  in  particular, 
were  wanting.  "  Virginia  promised  them,  but," 
he  writes  to  his  friend,  Dr.  Phyle  of  Philadelphia, 
"  I  meet  with  no  support,  no  integrity,  and  no 
virtue  in  the  State  of  Virginia,  and  place  my  sole 
reliance  on  the  French  fleet  and  army  which  are 
coming  to  our  relief."  With  every  step  in  ad 
vance  his  embarrassments  increased.  "What  a 
difference  between  war  in  this  country  and  in 
Europe,"  he  writes  to  his  wife.  "  Those  who  do 
not  know  the  former  know  not  what  it  is  to  con 
tend  against  obstacles."  At  Petersburg  he  received 


158  KALE. 

the  tidings  of  the  fall  of  Charleston,  an  event 
which  had  been  foreseen  and  provided  for.  The 
enemy  had  as  yet  no  firm  footing  in  the  Carolinas, 
and  he  was  to  prevent  them  from  gaining  one. 
He  presses  on,  his  difficulties  daily  increasing,  for 
the  further  he  advanced  the  more  difficult  he 
found  it  to  obtain  wagons  and  food.  North  Car 
olina  had  prepared  no  supplies  for  the  Union 
troops,  reserving  all  her  stores  for  the  militia ;  a 
body  utterly  untrustworthy  for  a  campaign  of 
marches  and  countermarches,  and  which  in  North 
Carolina  was  deeply  tainted  with  toryism.  As 
chief  in  command,  and  consequently  brought  into 
frequent  contact  with  dilatory  legislatures  and 
ignorant  militia,  Kalb  had  much  to  endure.  He 
had  physical  trials  also,  hardly  less  annoying, 
which  he  describes  to  his  wife  in  those  long  and 
frequent  letters  that  give  so  pleasant  a  picture 
of  his  married  life.  "Here  I  am  at  last,"  he 
writes  from  Goshen,  on  the  borders  of  North 
Carolina,  "  considerably  south,  suffering  from  in 
tolerable  heat  and  the  worst  of  quarters,  and  the 
most  voracious  insects  of  every  hue  and  form. 
The  most  disagreeable  of  the  latter  is  what  is 
commonly  called  the  tick,  a  kind  of  strong  black 
flea,  which  makes  its  way  under  the  skin,  and  by 
its  bite  produces  the  most  painful  irritation  and 
inflammation,  which  last  a  number  of  days.  My 
whole  body  is  covered  with  their  stings." 


KALE.  159 

One  of  his  worst  foes  was  hunger.  Failing  to 
obtain  provisions  from  the  State  executive,  he 
was  compelled  to  send  out  foraging  parties,  a 
painful  and  yet  an  insufficient  resource,  for  the 
farmers  were  living  on  the  last  year's  crop,  which 
was  nearly  exhausted,  while  the  new  crop,  though 
full  of  promise  to  the  eye,  was  not  yet  ripe ;  and 
although  the  commanders  of  these  parties  were 
ordered  to  treat  the  inhabitants  with  the  greatest 
leniency,  they  could  not  but  add  materially  to 
the  miseries  of  the  suffering  country.  When  this 
resource  failed,  he  was  compelled  to  advance  to 
wards  the  richer  districts. 

It  is  only  by  minute  details  that  such  pictures 
as  these  can  be  made  faithful,  or  such  services  as 
Kalb's  be  placed  in  their  true  light.  Yet  even  in 
this  hasty  sketch  there  is  enough  to  prove  that 
he  possessed  some  of  the  soldier's  highest  qualities 
in  the  highest  degree.  But  we  are  near  the  end. 
On  the  13th  of  July  a  letter  from  General  Gates 
announces  to  Kalb  that  the  command  of  the 
southern  army  has  been  transferred  to  the  suc 
cessful  leader  of  the  northern  army  of  1777. 
Kalb  replies,  on  the  16th,  from  his  camp  on 
the  Deep  River,  giving .  a  concise  description  of 
his  condition  and  prospects,  and  expressing  his 
satisfaction  at  the  promise  of  being  relieved  from 
so  difficult  a  command.  If  anything  could  have 
prepared  Gates's  mind  for  a  true  conception  of 


160  KALE. 

the  condition  of  his  army,  it  would  have  been  an 
unvarnished  tale  like  this.  But  his  brain  had 
been  heated  by  success,  and,  fancying  that  the 
men  who  had  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  repre 
sentations  of  Kalb  would  act  with  energy  and 
promptitude  at  the  call  of  the  favorite  of  Con 
gress,  he  pushed  on  to  Wilcox's  Mills  on  the  Deep 
River,  where  the  famishing  army  lay  encamped. 
Kalb  received  him  with  a  salute  of  thirteen  guns 
and  all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  that  his 
scanty  means  would  permit,  and  then  sank,  with 
a  lightened  heart,  into  the  subordinate  position 
of  a  commander  of  division.  Gates  paid  him  the 
compliment  of  confirming  his  standing  orders, 
but  startled  officers  and  men  by  ordering  them  to 
hold  themselves  in  readiness  to  set  out,  the  next 
morning,  on  the  direct  route  to  Camden.  When 
reminded  in  a  written  memorial,  signed  by  all 
the  leading  officers,  that  the  direct  route  led 
through  a  desolate  and  barren  region,  and  that 
there  was  not  food  enough  in  camp  for  a  single 
day,  he  replied  that  supplies  of  provisions  and  rum 
were  on  their  way  from  the  north,  and  would  reach 
the  army  in  two  days  at  the  furthest.  "  I  have 
but  to  stamp  my  foot,"  said  Pompey,  "  and 
armed  men  will  start  from  the  soil  of  Italy."  "  I. 
have  but  to  show  myself,"  thought  Gates,  "  and 
Cornwallis  will  take  refuge  in  Charleston." 
The  disastrous  march  began.  Disease,  heat, 


KALE.  161 

and  hunger  fought  for  the  enemy.  Mutiny  was 
twice  at  the  door.  Neither  supplies  nor  reinforce 
ments  came.  Molasses  was  used  to  temper  the 
brackish  water.  The  meat  was  the  meagre  beef 
of  the  pine  barrens,  in  small  quantities.  For 
bread  they  ate  unripened  corn  and  peaches  still 
half  green.  By  the  13th  of  August  they  were 
within  thirteen  miles  of  the  enemy.  On  the 
15th,  the  heavy  baggage,  camp  equipage,  the 
sick,  and  women  and  children  were  sent  to  the 
rear,  and  orders  issued  for  a  night  march.  A 
council  of  war  was  called,  not  for  consultation, 
but  to  confirm  the  general's  plan  of  action.  The 
confidence  in  his  judgment  had  not  been  in 
creased  by  the  knowledge  that  he  had  estimated 
his  strength  at  7000  men,  when  he  had  but  3052 
fit  for  duty.  The  confidence  in  his  tactics  was 
shaken  when  it  was  seen  that,  against  all  the  laws 
of  tactics,  he  had  placed  at  the  head  of  a  column 
in  a  night  march  Armand's  cavalry,  a  body  of 
raw  and  undisciplined  foreigners.  Kalb  urged 
that  they  should  remain  at  ClermOnt,  a  place 
strong  by  nature  and  capable  of  being  made 
stronger  by  art.  This,  too,  he  argued,  was  the 
true  course  for  the  American  army,  the  motley 
composition  of  which  was  much  better  adapted 
to  defense  than  to  attack ;  but  this  wise  counsel 
was  not  heeded.  "  We  may  have  Cornwallis 
against  us,"  said  an  officer.  "  He  will  not  dare 
11 


162  KALE. 

to  look  me  in  the  face,"  was  Gates's  reply.  "  I 
wonder  where  we  shall  dine  to-morrow,"  said  an 
other.  "  Dine,  sir,"  was  the  answer,  "  why, 
where,  but  in  Camden  ?  I  wouldn't  give  a 
pinch  of  snuff  for  the  certainty  of  eating  my 
breakfast  at  Camden  to-morrow,  and  seeing  Lord 
Cornwallis  my  guest  at  table." 

At  ten  in  the  evening  the  tents  were  struck, 
and  the  troops,  filing  into  position,  began  their 
march.  The  sky  was  clear,  the  stars  shone 
brightly,  but  the  air  was  sultry,  and  night  had 
none  of  its  wonted  coolness  to  repair  the  strength 
consumed  by  the  burning  heat  of  the  day.  Si 
lence  was  enjoined  under  penalty  of  death.  The 
deep  sand  deadened  the  rumbling  of  the  artillery 
and  the  heavy  tread  of  the  men.  The  air 
gleamed  with  myriads  of  fire-flies.  But  every 
now  and  then  men  sickened  and  fell  out  of  the 
ranks.  Meanwhile  Cornwallis,  little  dreaming 
that  his  enemy  was  so  near,  was  advancing  at  the 
head  of -2233  men,  in  the  hope  of  coming  upon 
the  Americans  by  surprise  at  Clermont.  Thus 
the  two  armies  were  fast  approaching  each  other, 
each  ignorant  of  the  proximity  of  his  enemy.  At 
about  two  in  the  morning  they  met  in  a  glade  in 
the  pine  forest  which  fell  off  with  a  gentle  dec 
lination  towards  Saunder's  Creek,  about  half  a 
mile  distant,  and  was  covered  on  both  flanks  by 
impenetrable  marshes  ;  a  position  not  wanting  in 


KALE.  163 

strength,  but  too  narrow  for  the  easy  manage 
ment  of  troops.  A  brisk  fire  followed  the  col 
lision,  and  in  the  skirmish  Arm  and 's  cavalry 
was  thrown  back  upon  the  first  Maryland  brigade, 
which  caught  the  panic  and  broke.  But  Porter- 
field's  light  infantry  held  its  ground  and  drove 
the  English,  though  with  the  loss  of  their  gal 
lant  leader.  Both  sides  paused,  and  drawing  a 
little  back,  waited  with  throbbing  hearts  to  see 
what  daylight  might  reveal. 

From    some    prisoners,  who  had    been   taken 
in  the  skirmish,  Williams,  the  adjutant-general, 
learned  that  Cornwallis  himself  was  at  the  head 
of  the   hostile   army,  and  hastened  with  the  in 
telligence  to  Gates.      The  inconsiderate  general 
could  not  conceal  his  amazement.     "  Let  a  coun 
cil  be  called,"  was  his  comment  upon  the  un 
welcome    tidings.      Williams   hurried    to    Kalb. 
"  Well,"  'said  the  veteran,  "  did  not   the  com 
manding  general  immediately  order  a  retreat  ?  " 
The  council  met  in  the  rear  of  the  American 
lines.     "You   know   our  situation,  gentlemen," 
said  Gates,  "  what  had  we  better  do  ?  "     A  deep 
and  ominous  silence  followed.     Kalb  had  already 
twice   offered  wise  council  which   had  been  re 
jected.    It  was  not  in  his  nature  to  offer  it  again. 
The  first  to  speak  was  the  impetuous  Stevens. 
"We  must  fight,   gentlemen:  it  is  not  yet  too 
late:  we  can  do   nothing   else,  we  must  fight." 


164  KALE. 

"  We  must  fight  then,"  said  Gates.     "  Gentle 
men,  to  your  posts  !  " 

At  break  of  day  the  battle  began.  The  first 
scene  was  soon  ended.  Unable  to  stand  the 
fierce  onset  of  Cornwallis's  veterans,  the  Virginia 
militia  broke  and  fled,  carrying  the  North  Caro 
linians  with  them  in  their  headlong  flight.  "  I 
will  bring  the  rascals  with  me  back  into  line," 
exclaimed  Gates,  and  spurred  after  them,  not 
stopping  till  he  reached  Charlotte,  sixty  miles 
from  the  field  of  battle.  And  now  the  interest 
centres  in  Kalb.  The  final  hour  of  the  veteran, 
who  had  fought  under  Saxe,  and  taken  an  hon 
orable  part  in  the  Seven  Years'  War,  was  come 
in  the  last  and  only  honorable  hour  of  the  battle 
of  Camden.  He  had  drawn  up  the  army,  put 
ting  himself  at  the  head  of  the  men  of  Dela 
ware  and  Maryland.  A  dense  fog  hung  over  the 
battle-field,  pressing  the  smoke  so  low  that  it  was 
impossible  to  distinguish  objects  even  at  a  small 
distance,  and  it  was  some  time  before  he  became 
aware  of  the  flight  of  the  left  wing  and  centre. 
Then,  gathering  all  his  forces  around  him,  con 
scious  of  his  danger  but  not  despairing  of  vic 
tory,  he  led  them  to  the  charge.  It  must  have 
been  a  thrilling  sight  to  see  how  firmly  they  held 
their  ground,  how  they  fired  volley  after  volley 
into  the  enemy's  ranks,  how,  when  they  had 
opened  their  way  by  their  musketry,  they  fol- 


KALD.  165 

lowed  it  up  by  the  bayonet.  Above  them  all  tow 
ered  the  gallant  German  at  their  head.  His 
sword  was  stained  deepest,  his  battle-cry  rang 
clearest;  there  was  triumph  in  the  keen  flash  of 
his  eye,  if  not  the  victor's  triumph,  the  triumph  of 
duty  done.  Three  times  he  led  his  willing  men 
to  the  charge.  Three  times  they  were  forced 
back  by  superior  numbers.  For  numbers  began 
to  tell.  His  horse  was  shot  under  him.  His 
head  was  laid  open  by  a  sabre  stroke.  Jaquette, 
the  adjutant  of  the  Delaware  regiment,  bound  up 
the  wound  with  his  scarf  and  besought  him  to 
withdraw  from  the  fight.  Without  heeding  the 
appeal,  Kalb  led  the  charge  on  foot.  Wound 
followed  wound,  but  he  held  his  ground  desper 
ately.  At  last,  concentrating  his  strength  in  a 
final  charge,  Cornwallis  came  on.  The  Mary- 
landers  broke.  Kalb  fell,  bleeding  from  eleven 
wounds;  still  at  this  supreme  moment  strong 
enough  to  cut  down  a  soldier  who  was  aiming  his 
bayonet  at  his  breast.  "  The  rebel  general,  the 
rebel  general ! "  shouted  the  enemy,  as  they 
caught  sight  of  his  epaulettes.  "  Spare  the 
Baron  de  Kalb,"  cried  his  adjutant,  Dubuysson, 
vainly  throwing  himself  upon  his  body  and  try 
ing  to  shield  it  with  his  own  from  the  thirsty 
bayonets.  He  spoke  to  hearts  hardened  by  the 
fierce  spirit  of  battle.  The  furious  English 
raised  the  helpless  warrior  from  the  ground,  and 


166  KALE. 

leaning  him  against  a  wagon  began  to  strip  him. 
At  this  moment  Cornwallis  and  his  suite  rode  up. 
They  found  him  already  stripped  to  his  shirt  and 
with  the  blood  streaming  from  eleven  wounds. 
"  I  regret  to  see  you  so  badly  wounded,  but  am 
glad  to  have  defeated  you,"  said  the  victorious 
general,  and  immediately  gave  orders  that  his 
brave  antagonist  should  be  properly  eared  for. 
For  three  days  Kalb's  strong  frame  struggled 
with  death.  Dubuysson  watched  by  his  bedside. 
English  officers  came  to  express  their  sympathy 
and  regret.  Soldier  to  the  last,  his  thoughts  were 
with  the  brave  men  who  had  faced  the  enemy  so 
gallantly  at  his  command,  and  just  before  he  ex 
pired  he  charged  his  faithful  adjutant  to  give 
them  his  "thanks  for  their  valor,  and  bid  them 
an  affectionate  farewell." 

On  the  19th'  he  died,  —  three  days  after  the 
battle.  The  masons  of  the  British  army  took 
part  in  his  funeral,  and  buried  him  with  masonic 
rites.  Gates  announced  his  death  to  Congress  in 
terms  of  warm  admiration  ;  and  Congress  voted 
a  monument  to  his  memory  which  has  never  been 
erected.  Till  1821,  the  solitary  tree  under  which 
he  had  been  buried  was  the  only  record  of  the 
spot  where  he  lay.  Then  proposals  were  made 
to  erect  a  monument  to  him  at  Camden,  and 
after  some  delay  the  work  was  begun.  Little 
progress  had  been  made,  when  Lafayette's  last 


KALE.  167 

visit  to  this  country  in  1825  revived,  for  a  mo 
ment,  the  sense  of  local  rather  than  of  national 
obligation,  and  the  illustrious  Frenchman,  who 
had  been  Kalb's  first  companion,  was,  with  pe 
culiar  propriety,  asked  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of 
this  tardy  tribute  to  the  memory  of  his  heroic 
friend. 


GEKMAN   MEKCENABIES. 


Vende  la  carne  loro,  essendo  viva. 
L         He  sells  their  flesh,  it  being  yet  alive.  " 

DANTE,  Purgatorio,  xiv. 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 


IN  the  states  of  antiquity  all  citizens  owed 
military  service  to  the  state.  During  the  Mid 
dle  Ages  this  military  relation  assumed  the 
form  of  a  personal  obligation,  which  bound  the 
vassal  to  answer  the  call  to  arms  of  his  liege 
lord  with  a  number  of  men  proportioned  to  the 
extent  of  the  domain  which  he  held  of  him. 
When  wars  became  longer  and  more  expensive, 
the  sovereign  found  himself  dependent  upon  the 
good-will  of  his  vassals  for  the  success  of  his 
arms.  His  right  to  command  was  unquestion 
able.  The  vassal,  if  dissatisfied,  might  disobey  ; 
and  thus  the  final  question  between  them  was  a 
question  of  power  —  of  power  to  enforce,  or  of 
power  to  rebel. 

Among  the  more  active  of  the  German  em 
perors  whose  aspirations  exceeded  their  means  of 
action  was  Maximilian  the  First,  known  to  his 
contemporaries  as  Maximilian  the  Moneyless. 
Though  married  to  the  powerful  Mary  of  Bur 
gundy,  he  received  no  aid  from  her  vassals ; 


172  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

though  active  and  energetic,  he  was  abandoned 
by  his  own.     The  Swiss  had  fallen  from  him, 
and  he  had  neither  the  money  to  buy,  nor  the 
strength  to  force  them  back.     It  was  then,  and 
probably  with  no  conception  of  the  full  signifi 
cance  of  what  he  was  doing,  that,  instead  of  ad 
dressing  himself  to  his  nobles  as  feudal  vassals,  he 
raised  an  army  of  free  burghers  and  peasants  in 
eastern  Austria,  Suabia,  and  the    Tyrol.     This 
army  was  composed   of  infantry.       Gunpowder 
had  already  reduced  the  fully  armed  knight  to 
the  level  of  the'  soldier  on  foot,  or  in  other  words 
the  contest  between  the  noble  and  the  plebeian, 
which  had  been  waged  so  long  and  so  disastrously 
in  Rome,  was  renewed  in  modern  Europe  under 
different  circumstances  and  in   a  new  form.     It 
was  a  war  between  industry  and  privilege,  be 
tween  mechanical  skill,  or  physical  power  under 
the   control    of    an  intelligent   will,    and   brute 
force  ;  a  question,  as  time  developed  it,  between 
the  longest  purse  and  the  longest  sword.     It  is 
no  part  of  my  present  object  to  follow  the  prog 
ress  of  this  contest  from  the  first   landsknechts 
of  Maximilian   to   the  perfect  machines   of   the 
Great  Frederick.     I  wish  only  to  call  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  reinstatement  of  the  infantry 
to  their  true  position  soon  opened  the  way  for  the 
decline  of  the  old  feudal  armies  and  the  enlist 
ment  of  troops  for  longer  terms  of  service.     He 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  173 

who  could  pay  best  was  surest  of  finding  willing 
soldiers.  Commercial  states  like  Venice  could 
always  raise  whatever  sums  they  wanted  at  five 
per  cent.,  while  Charles  VIII.  was  checked  in 
the  very  beginning  of  his  Italian  Avars  and  com 
pelled  to  pay  forty-two  per  cent,  for  the  means 
of  continuing  them.  Thus  new  resources  were 
opened  for  the  formation  of  armies.  Princes 
could  carry  on  war  as  long  as  their  subjects  could 
be  made  to  pay  for  it,  and  war  itself  became  a 
lucrative  and  honored  pursuit.  From  regular 
bands  of  mercenaries  came  standing  armies  and 
that  oppressive  military  system  of  modern  Eu 
rope  which  has  weighed  so  heavily  upon  the  la 
boring  classes  and  retarded  the  moral,  the  intel 
lectual,  and  the  industrial  development  of  society. 
All  the  great  wars  of  modern  Europe,  till  the 
wars  of  the  French  Revolution,  had  been  car 
ried  on  in  a  large  measure  by  mercenary  troops, 
among  which  the  Germans  were  perhaps  the 
foremost  for  aptitude  to  arms,  power  of  endur 
ance,  cruelty,  rapacity,  and,  as  long  as  they  were 
regularly  paid,  for  fidelity  to  their  banner.  But 
no  sooner  did  their  pay  fall  in  arrears  than  they 
grew  disobedient  and  discontented,  and  if  not 
bought  over  were  presently  found  fighting  and 
plundering  on  the  other  side.  Would  you  see 
the  mercenary  in  his  perfect  form,  study  the  Cap 
tain  Dalgetty  of  Scott's  "  Legend  of  Montrose," 


174  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

who  cannot  be  induced  by  any  temptation  to  en 
ter  upon  neAv  service  until  he  has  fulfilled  all  the 
conditions  of  the  old  ;  who  loves  his  horse,  and 
grooms  and  feeds  him  before  he  provides  for  him 
self,  yet  who,  when  the  faithful  animal  is  killed, 
skins  him  with  his  own  hands.  But  Dalgetty 
was  an  officer,  and  the  distinction  between  offi 
cer  and  soldier  was  sharply  drawn.  For  the  offi 
cer  there  was  promotion  and  social  position.  He 
embraced  arms  as  a  profession  because  he  pre 
ferred  them  to  any  other  profession.  Of  the  po 
litical  questions  connected  with  war  he  knew  and 
cared  little.  Of  the  moral  question  connected 
with  it  he  knew  and  cared  nothing.  He  was 
trained  to  look  unmoved  upon  human  suffering. 
The  battle-field  and  hospital  seldom  appealed  to 
his  sympathies,  for  habit  had  blunted  them.  To 
fight  and  attract  the  eye  of  his  commander  was 
his  ambition.  To  win  a  ribbon  or  a  cross  was 
his  highest  aspiration.  If  he  were  a  captain,  he 
might  become  a  colonel.  If  he  were  a  colonel,  he 
might  become  a  brigadier.  And  when  peace 
came,  there  were  Paris  and  garrisons  to  lounge 
and  be  idle  in. 

In  these  rewards  the  soldier  of  the  ranks  had 
no  part.  To  be  an  officer  required  a  nobility  of 
four  descents,  and  the  private,  once  enlisted,  be 
came  a  mere  machine  in  the  hands  of  his  supe 
riors.  But  let  us  study  this  victim  of  a  barba- 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES 

rous  usage  somewhat  more  in  detail,  for  it  is  only 
by  getting  close  to  a  subject  that  we  can  form  a 
correct  idea  of  it.  These  details  bring  into  strong 
relief  the  difference  between  the  present  and  the 
past,  enabling  us  to  measure  for  ourselves  the 
progress  and  the  effects  of  civilization.  It  is  in 
the  lessons  drawn  from  this  thorough  comprehen 
sion  of  the  past  that  the  instruction  of  history 
lies,  and  among  these  lessons  there  is  none  truer 
than  that  institutions,  like  men,  have  their  pe 
riods  of  strength  and  weakness,  of  growth  and 
decay.  The  formation  of  regular  troops  was  the 
beginning  of  a  great  revolution,  which,  while  it 
strengthened  the  hands  of  the  prince,  opened 
new  fields  for  the  intellectual  and  moral  growth 
of  the  peasant :  not  intentionally,  indeed,  but  be 
cause  human  events  obey  subtle  laws,  and  re 
sults  often  cover  much  broader  ground  than  we 
think  of  in  directing  our  aim. 

When  regular  armies  had  taken  the  place  of 
feudal  armies,  and  military  adventurers  were 
ready  to  sell  their  own  blood  and  that  of  their 
followers  to  the  best  paymaster,  the  question  most 
urgent  upon  them  all  was  how  to  fill  their  ranks 
and  keep  them  full.  Some  were  found  who  took 
service  readily  of  their  own  accord.  These  were 
chiefly  either  middle-aged  men,  whom  the  hab 
its  of  the  camp  had  unfitted  for  any  other  kind 
of  life,  or  young  men  easily  dazzled  by  the  splen 


176  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

dor  of  military  display.  They  formed,  however, 
but  the  skeleton  of  an  army.  Many  more  were 
wanted  to  fill  its  ranks.  Of  the  cunning,  the 
guile,  the  fraud,  the  heartless  inhumanity  with 
which  the  nefarious  art  of  recruiting  was  carried 
on,  we  should  find  it  impossible  to  form  any  idea 
had  not  the  story  been  often  told  in  forms  which 
leave  no  room  for  doubt.  We  will  borrow  one 
of  these  dark  pages  from  the  Frederick  of  Mr. 
Carlyle.1 

"  All  countries,  especially  all  German  coun 
tries,  are  infested  with  a  new  species  of  preda 
tory  two-legged  animals  —  Prussian  recruiters. 
They  glide  about,  under  disguise  if  necessary ; 
lynx-eyed,  eager  almost  as  the  Jesuit  hounds  are; 
not  hunting  the  souls  of  men  as  the  spiritual  Jes 
uits  do,  but  their  bodies,  in  a  merciless,  carniv 
orous  manner.  Better  not  be  too  tall  in  any 
country  at  present !  Irishmen  could  not  be  pro 
tected  by  the  aegis  of  the  British  constitution  it 
self.  Generally,  however,  the  Prussian  recruiter 
on  British  ground  reports  that  the  people  are  too 
well  off ;  that  there  is  little  to  be  done  in  those 

parts Germany,  Holland,  Switzerland,  the 

Netherlands,  these  are  the  fruitful  fields  for  us, 
and  there  we  do  hunt  with  some  vigor. 

"For  example, in  the  town  of  Jiilich  there  lived 
and  worked  a  tall  young  carpenter.  One  day,  a 

1  Life  of  Frederick  II.,  book  v.  ch.  5. 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  177 

well-dressed  positive-looking  gentleman  (Baron 
von  Hompesch,  the  records  namehim)  enters  the 
shop  ;  wants  '  a  stout  chest  with  lock  on  it,  for 
household  purposes ;    must  be  of  such  and  such 
dimensions,  six  feet  six  in  length  especially,  and 
that  is  an  indispensable  point — in  fact,  it  will  be 
longer    than    yourself,  I  think,    Herr    Zimmer- 
mann ;  what  is  the  cost  ?  when  can  it  be  ready  ? ' 
Cost,  time,  and  the  rest  are  settled.     4  A  right 
stout  chest,   then  ;  and  see  you  don't  forget  the 
size  ;  if  too  short  it  will  be  of  no  use  to    me, 
mind  !  '    '  Ja  wohl !     Gewiss  !  '  and  the  positive- 
looking   gentleman  goes  his  ways.     At  the  ap 
pointed  day  he  reappears  ;    the  chest  is  ready ; 
we  hope,  an  unexceptionable  article.   '  Too  short, 
as  I  had  dreaded,'  says  the  positive  gentleman. 
4  Nay,  your  honor,'  says  the  carpenter,  'I  am  cer 
tain  it  is  six  feet  six,'  and  takes  out  his  foot-rule. 
4  Pshaw !     it   was   to   be   longer   than  yourself.' 
'  Well,  it  is.'     «  No  it  is  n't.'     The  carpenter,  to 
end  the  matter,  gets  into  his  chest  and  will  con 
vince  any  and  all  mortals.     No  sooner  is  he  in, 
rightly  flat,  than  the  positive  gentleman,  a  Prus 
sian    recruiting  officer  in  disguise,   slams  down 
the  lid  upon  him,  locks  it,  whistles  in  three  stout 
fellows,   who  pick  up   the   chest,  gravely  walk 
through   the  streets  with  it,  open  it  in  a   safe 
place,  and  find  —  horrible  to  relate  —  the  poor 
carpenter  dead !  " 
12 


178  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

Once  enlisted,  how  were  recruits  to  be  got 
safely  to  the  camp  or  the  garrison  where  they 
were  to  be  converted  into  machines?  The  in 
structions  framed  for  the  guidance  of  the  men 
entrusted  with  this  difficult  task  will  tell  us. 
The  first  and  most  important  point  was  to  secure 
the  safety  of  the  recruiting  officer  charged  with 
their  transportation.  He  was  to  be  provided  with 
good  side-arms,  always  carry  a  pistol,  and  never 
allow  the  recruit  to  walk  behind  him,  or  come 
near  enough  to  him  to  seize  him  by  the  body. 
And  to  give  additional  force  to  the  precaution,  the 
recruit  was  told  that  the  first  false  step  would  cost 
him  his  life.  If  practicable,  the  recruiting  officer 
in  choosing  a  route  was  to  avoid  the  province 
where  his  recruit  had  served  before,  or  was  born. 
He  was  to  avoid  also  all  large  cities  and  prosper 
ous  villages.  In  choosing  quarters  for  the  night 
he  was  to  give  the  preference  to  inns  frequented 
by  recruiting  officers,  and  where  the  landlord  was 
on  their  side.  Even  here  the  most  watchful  fore 
sight  was  required.  The  recruit  was  made  to  un 
dress  by  word  of  command,  and  the  clothes  both 
of  the  officer  and  the  recruit  were  handed  to  the 
landlord  for  safe-keeping  over  night.  The  officer 
slept  between  the  recruit  and  the  door. 

On  the  march  the  recruit  must  not  be  allowed 
to  look  about  him,  or  stop,  much  less  converse 
with  passers-by,  and  particularly  in  a  foreign 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

language.  The  officer  guides  the  recruit  as  you 
would  guide  a  horse.  The  words  halt,  march, 
slow,  fast,  right,  left,  forward,  must  be  obeyed' 
on  the  instant ;  the  slightest  hesitation  would  be 
a  bad  omen  for  the  authority  of  the  officer.  At 
the  inns  where  they  stopt  overnight  they  were 
put,  if  possible,  in  an  upper  room,  with  iron  bars 
to  the  windows.  On  no  account  could  the  recruit 
1  be  allowed  to  leave  the  room  overnight.  A  lamp 
was  kept  burning  all  night  long,  and  close  by  an 
unlighted  one  must  be  ready  for  immediate  use. 

To  prevent  the  recruit  from  seizing  the  officer's 
arms  in  the  night,  they  were  given  to  the  land 
lord,  as  his  clothes  were,  for  safe-keeping ;  and' 
in  the  morning,  when  they  were  given  back,  they 
were  examined  anew  and  the  priming  freshened. 
When  he,  the  officer,  is  dressed  and  armed,  he 
orders  the  recruit  to  rise  and  dress.     In  entering 
an  inn  or  a  room,  the  recruit  goes  first ;  in  going 
out,  last.     In   the  inn  itself,   the  officer  sits  in 
front  of  the  table,  the  recruit  behind  it.      If  the 
recruit  has  a  wife  she  is  subject  to  the  same  laws 
which  govern  his  motions,  obeys  the  same  word 
of  command,  and  never  walks  before  her  hus 
band  ;  but  in  every  way  is  made  to  feel  that  the 
eye  of  the  vigilant  guard  is  constantly  upon  her. 
Care,  too,  is  taken,  on  the  route,  to  cut  off  the 
recruit  from  all  communication  with  anybody  but 
his  guard.     He  must  not  be  allowed  pen  or  ink 


180  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

•or  paper  or  pencil.     To  prevent  him  from  rising 
•upon  his  guard  by  the  way,   all  his  dangerous 
weapons,  even  to  a  large  knife,  are  taken  away, 
•and  neither  he  nor  his  wife  is  allowed  the  use  of 
•a  cane.     As  with  a  novice  among  the  Jesuits,  all 
his  gestures  and  words  are  noted  down  and  re 
ported,  with  the  remarks  and  comments  of  the 
Teporter.      If  he  actually  makes  an  attempt  to 
escape,  he  must  be    instantly    put  in  irons,   or 
have  the  thumb-screw  put  on  him.     It  is  a  bad 
affair  if  the  officer  is  under  the  necessity  of  using 
Ms  weapons  and  wounding  or  killing  the  recruit. 
Care  must  be  taken,  also,  that  the  recruit  be 
not  an  over  match  for  his   guard.      Every  stout, 
well-built,    bold-faced    recruit    must   be   closely 
watched,  and  it  may  even  become  necessary  to 
double  the  guard.     The   danger  of  escape  pre 
sents  itself  in  lively  forms  to  the  imagination  of 
the  author  of  the  instructions.     He  calculates  cau 
tiously  how  many  recruiting  officers  may  be  re 
quired  for  a  given  number  of  recruits,  and  comes 
to  the  conclusion  that  under  the  most  favorable 
circumstances  three  officers  may  take  charge  of 
seven  or  even  nine  recruits. 

"But  two  recruits  should  never  be  entrusted 
to  one  officer.  Should  this,  however,  seem  to  be 
unavoidable,  it  is  extremely  unfortunate  for  the 
officer.  When  it  is  absolutely  impossible  for  the 
officer  to  keep  the  recruits  back  till  he  becomes 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  181 

strong  enough  to  give  them  a  proper  guard,  he 
must  hire  somebody  to  help  him.  It  is  better  to  in 
cur  expense  for  the  sake  of  foresight,  than  to  injure 
the  recruit  or  expose  the  life  of  the  officer  to  in 
evitable  danger."  The  tone  of  regret  in  this  last 
sentence  reminds  us  that  it  was  not  awakened  by 
apprehension  for  the  loss  of  a  human  being,  but 
from  fear  that  a  name  might  be  stricken  from  the 
muster-roll.  One  more  provision  completes  the 
picture.  "  For  the  recruiting  officer,  and  even 
more  for  his  subordinate,  a  good  dog  will  be  very 
useful.  He  must  be  taught  not  to  allow  recruits 
to  carry  sticks  in  their  hands  ;  to  bark  if  he  sees 
one  rise  or  move  in  the  night ;  to  drive  him  back 
if  he  sees  one  leave  the  road  ;  to  seize  him  if  he 
sees  him  run,  and  only  let  go  of  him  at  his 
master's  command  ;  not  to  allow  him  to  pick  up 
anything,  and  many  other  precautions  which  may 
serve  to  lighten  the  task  of  the  officer  and  his 
subaltern. 

"  And  finally,  if  in  passing  a  crowd  or  a  city, 
the  recruit  should  make  a  desperate  attempt  to 
escape  by  calling  for  help  and  declaring  that  he 
has  been  forced  to  enlist,  the  officer  is  directed  to 
appeal  to  the  authorities,  who,  after  seeing  his 
papers,  will  doubtless  give  him,  the  necessary 
aid." 

Suppose  now  that  this  watchfulness  has  been 
successful,  that  the  recruit  has  been  safely  con- 


182  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

veyed  to  the  camp  or  garrison  where  he  is  to  take 
the  first  steps  in  this  passage  from,  a  man  to  a 
machine.  Handcuffs,  thumb-screws,  heavy  chains, 
and,  above  all,  the  cane  in  strong  hands,  break 
in'time  the  strongest  will ;  repeated  humiliations 
destroy  self-respect ;  familiarity  with  scenes  of 
violence  and  barbarity  undermines  the  moral 
sense  ;  the  recruit  has  no  motive  but  to  escape 
punishment,  and  no  comforter  but  the  brandy 
bottle.  Yet  even  in  these  ashes  live  some  sparks 
of  humanity,  some  of  those  sympathies  which, 
perhaps,  are  never  altogether  extinguished  in  the 
human  breast.  Daily  association  in  the  same 
duties,  daily  gatherings  under  the  same  flag, 
awaken  a  certain  sense  of  common  interest  and 
feeling,  and  supply  in  a  certain  measure  the  hu 
man  necessity  of  love.  Whatever  of  pride  is  left 
him  centres  in  his  flag.  Such  was  the  training 
of  the  men  who  were  hired  to  fight  against  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  What  mattered  it 
to  them  whether  they  fought  in  Germany  or  in 
America,  for  a  prince  or  for  a  people  ?  If  one 
wishes  to  form  a  vivid  conception  of  these 
wretched  men,  looking  straight  into  the  picture, 
he  should  read  some  of  the  scenes  in  George 
Sand's  "  Consuelo,"  and  Thackeray's  "  Memoirs 
of  Barry  Lyndon."  If  one  'wishes  to  take  the  no 
bler  point  of  view  and  look  down  upon  the  pict 
ure,  he  should  read  the  life  of  Baron  Riedesel 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  183 

and  the  memoirs  of  his  wife.     And  now  for  the 
bearings  of  this  sketch  upon  American  history. 

It  soon  became  evident  to  the  English  govern 
ment  that  it  must  either  give  up  the  contest  with 
America  or  strengthen  its  armies.  The  popula 
tion  of  the  colonies  was  generally  estimated  at 
three  millions.  To  reduce  these  three  millions 
to  obedience,  England  had  only  fifteen  thousand 
men  in  arms  between  Nova  Scotia  and  Florida  ; 
allowing  all  that  could  be  claimed  for  the  differ 
ence  between  well-armed  and  well-disciplined 
men  and  an  undisciplined  and  imperfectly  armed 
militia,  it  was  still  easy  to  see  that  in  a  protracted 
contest,  such  as  this  was  sure  to  be,  numbers  must 
prevail.  Her  own  subjects  England  could  not 
fully  count  upon  for  filling  the  ranks,  for  by  many 
of  them  the  war  was  disliked  from  the  beginning. 
The  city  of  London  itself  was  notoriously  opposed 
to  it.  It  was  necessary,  therefore,  for  the  minis 
try  to  cast  about  them  for  a  man-market  from 
whence  to  draw  their  supplies.  The  first  that 
presented  itself  to  their  minds  was  Russia.  The 
two  sovereigns  were  upon  the  friendliest  terms. 
England  had  virtually  consented  to  the  partition 
of  Poland,  in  1772.  The  treaty  of  Kutschuk- 
Kainardsche,  in  1774,  had  left  Russia  with  a  pow 
erful  army.  What  more  profitable  use  could  she 
make  of  it  than  by  selling  it  to  England  for  so 
many  guineas  a  head  ?  Gunning,  the  English 


184  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

minister  to  the  Russian  court,  was  instructed  to 
begin  negotiations  for  twenty  thousand  men  :  for 
it  was  not  mere  auxiliaries  but  an  army  that 
England  sought  to  bring  into  the  field,  thus 
crushing  the  insurrection  by  a  well-directed  blow. 
In  an  interview  with  Count  Panin,  Catherine's 
prime  minister,  the  British  envoy  asked,  as  if  in 
casual  conversation,  whether,  if  the  present  meas 
ures  for  the  suppression  of  the  insurrection  should 
fail,  and  his  master  should  find  himself  under  the 
necessity  of  calling  in  foreign  troops,  he  could 
count  upon  a  body  of  Russian  infantry  ?  The 
trained  diplomat  made  no  answer,  but  referred 
the  question  to  the  empress,  who,  replying  in 
terms  of  general  politeness,  professed  to  feel  her 
self  under  great  obligations  to  George,  which  she 
would  gladly  repay  in  the  manner  most  agreeable 
to  him.  Without  waiting  to  weigh  these  words, 
which  in  diplomacy  might  mean  much  or  might 
mean  nothing,  Gunning  wrote  to  his  court,  in  all 
haste,  that  the  empress  would  furnish  the  twenty 
thousand  infantry.  The  important  tidings  were 
received  by  the  British  court  with  delight.  The 
commanders  serving  in  America  were  told  on 
what  powerful  succor  they  might  rely,  and  the 
king  in  his  rapture  wrote  with  his  own  hand 
a  letter  of  thanks  to  his  royal  sister.  Gunning 
was  ordered  to  push  on  the  negotiations,  and,  as 
if  he  had  never  known  before  how  little  faith  can 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  185 

be  placed  in  the  language  of  diplomacy,  was  over 
whelmed  with  astonishment  when  he  was  coolly 
told  that  the  words  of  the  empress  were  but  the 
general  expression  of  a  friendly  feeling,  and  that 
she  had  said  nothing  of  the  Russian  infantry. 
Great  was  the  indignation  of  the  English  king, 
not  that  the  negotiation  had  failed,  but  that  the 
empress  had  answered  his  royal  autograph  by 
the  hand  of  a  private  secretary. 

Holland  came  next,  and  on  a  superficial  view 
the  relations  between  the  two  countries  seemed 
to  justify  the  application.  But  it  was  met  by  an 
opposition  which  found  an  eloquent  expositor  in 
a  nobleman  of  Oberyssel,  the  Baron  van  dei-  Ca- 
pellen,  who,  speaking  boldly  in  the  name  of  free 
dom  and  national  honor,  and  setting  the  question 
of  succor  in  its  true  light,  succeeded  in  awaken 
ing  his  countrymen  —  themselves  the  descendants 
of  rebels  —  to  a  sense  of  what  they  owed  to  the 
memory  of  their  fathers  and  the  cause  of  free 
dom. 

But  there  was  a  country  where  the  name  of 
freedom  was  not  known,  whose  nationality  was 
lost  in  small  principalities  and  dukedoms,  whose 
vast  resources  were  sacrificed  to  the  luxury  and 
vanity  of  petty  sovereigns,  each  ambitious  of 
aping  on  his  little  stage  the  splendid  corruption 
of  the  French  court;  yet  having  strong  arms 
and  hardy  bodies  to  sell,  and  caring  only  for  the 


186  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

price  that  could  be  extorted  for  them.  To  Ger 
many,  then,  England  turned  in  her  need,  and  her 
prayer  was  heard. 

There  was  one  part  of  Germany  of  which 
England  could  freely  dispose.  George  III.  was 
not  only  King  of  England,  but  Elector  of  Hanover, 
and  as  elector  could  send  his  Hanoverian  troops 
wherever  he  saw  fit.  The  garrisons  of  Gibraltar 
and  Minorca  were  English.  By  recalling  these 
and  putting  Hanoverians,  in  their  place,  five  well- 
trained  battalions  of  infantry,  amounting  in  all  to 
two  thousand  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  men, 
were  secured  for  service  against  the  colonies.  In 
vain  did  the  parliamentary  opposition  appeal  to 
the  bill  of  rights,  and  deny  the  king's  right  to  in 
troduce  foreign  troops  into  the  kingdom  in  time  of 
peace.  They  were  told  that  Minorca  and  Gibral 
tar  were  not  parts,  but  merely  dependencies,  of 
the  kingdom,  and  that  the  American  insurrection 
constituted  a  state  of  war.  The  debate  was  long 
and  bitter,  but  the  decisive  vote  of  two  hundred 
and  three  to  eighty-one  in  the  Commons,  and 
seventy-five  to  thirty-two  in  the  Lords,  showed 
how  much  the  partisans  of  government  exceeded 
the  friends  of  the  colonists  in  number. 

No  sooner  was  England's  intention  to  raise 
troops  in  Germany  known,  than  officers  of  all 
grades,  who  had  been  thrown  out  of  service  by 
the  close  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  the  conse- 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  187 

quent  reduction  of  the  armies  for  which  it  had 
found  employment,  came  crowding  with  proposals 
to  open  recruiting  offices  and  raise  men.  How 
men  were  raised  has  already  been  told.  George, 
in  spite  of  his  royal  convictions,  felt  a  humane 
scruple.  "  To  give  German  officers  authority  to 
raise  recruits  for  me  is,  in  plain  English,  neither 
more  nor  less  than  to  become  a  man-stealer,  which 
I  cannot  look  upon  as  a  very  honorable  occupa 
tion."  But  royal  scruples  seldom  go  far  in  the 
interest  of  humanity.  Recruiting  officers  with 
full  permission  to  steal  men  were  soon  busily  at 
work  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  England.  Busi 
est  and  chief  amongst  them  were  the  German 
princes,  who  had  found  this  a  very  profitable 
branch  of  commerce  in  former  times,  and  were  as 
much  in  want  of  English  guineas  as  England  was 
in  want  of  German  soldiers. 

There  was  no  time  to  lose.  If  the  campaign 
of  1776  was  to  open  with  vigor,  reinforcements 
must  be  speedily  on  their  way.  Sir  Joseph  Yorke, 
an  experienced  diplomatist  familiar  with  the 
ground,  was  instructed  in  the  summer  of  1775  to 
ascertain  on  what  terms  and  in  what  numbers 
men  ^ould  be  obtained.  In  September  he  re 
plied  that  Hesse-Cassel,  Hesse-Darmstadt,  Wiir- 
temberg,  Saxe-Gotha,  and  Baden  were  ready  to 
furnish  any  number  of  troops  at  a  given  time  and 
for  a  fair  price.  The  Crown  Prince  of  Hesse- 


188  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

Cassel,  in  particular,  was  very  earnest  to  strike  a 
bargain,  and  close  upon  his  heels  came  the  Prince 
of  Waldeck.  Their  own  letters,  mostly  in  bad 
French,  remain  to  this  day  in  the  English 
archives,  to  bear  witness  to  their  degradation. 
I  will  give  a  specimen  of  their  English,  which  is 
every  way  worthy  of  their  French. 

"  My  Lord  "  (writes  the  Hereditary  Prince  of 
Hesse  to  Lord  Suffolk),  "  the  luck  I  have  had  to 
be  able  to  show  in  some  manner  my  utmost  re 
spect  and  gratitude  to  the  best  of  kings,  by  offer 
ing  my  troops  to  his  majesty's  service,  gives  me 
a  very  agreeable  opportunity  of  thanking  you, 
my  lord,  for  all  your  kindness  and  friendship  to 
me  upon  that  occasion,  and  begging  your  pardon 
for  all  the  trouble  I  may  have  provided  you  in 
this  regard. 

"  My  only  wishes  are  that  all  the  officers  and 
soldiers  of  my  regiment  now  to  his  majesty's  or 
ders  may  be  animated  of  the  same  respectful  at 
tachment  and  utmost  zeal  I  shall  ever  bear  for 
the  king,  my  generous  protector  and  magnani 
mous  support.  May  the  end  they  shall  fight  for 
answer  to  the  king's  upper  contentment,  and  your 
laudable  endeavors,  my  lord,  be  granted  by  the 
most  happiest  issue.  The  continuation  of  your 
friendship  to  me,  sir,  which  I  desire  very  much, 
assures  your  goodness  and  protection  to  my 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  189 

troops.     I  ask  in  their  name  this  favor  from  you, 
and  hope  you  will  deserve  it. 

"  Excuse  me,  sir,  if  I  am  not  strong  enough  in 
the  English  language  for  to  explain  as  I  should 
the  utmost  consideration,  and  sincere  esteem, 
with  which  I  am  forever,  my  lord,  your  most 
humble  and  very  obedient  servant, 

"  WILLIAM,  H.  P.  OF  HESSE." 

The  most  important  among  these  petty  princes 
was   the   Duke  of   Brunswick,  who  paid  thirty 
thousand  thalers  a  year  to  the  director  of   his 
opera  and  purveyor  of  his  pleasures,  and  three 
hundred  to  his  librarian,  the  great  Lessing.     His 
little  territory  of  about  sixty  square  miles  had  a 
population  of   one  hundred   and   fifty  thousand 
souls,  and  an  income  of  a  million  and  a  half.    His 
debts   amounted   to  nearly  twelve   millions.     A 
lover  of  pomp,  capricious  and  reckless  in  his  ex 
penditure,  he  had  been   compelled  to  admit  his 
son,  the  crown  prince,  to  a  partnership  of  author 
ity,  making   the  signatures  of  both  essential  to 
the  validity  of  a  document.     Fortunately  for  the 
duke's  creditors,  the  son  was  as  parsimonious  as 
the  father  was  extravagant,  and  let  no  opportu 
nity  of  raising  money  escape  him.     Such  was  the 
condition  of  the  court  of   Brunswick  when  En 
gland  sent  Colonel  William  Fawcitt  to  ask  for 
troops. 


190  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

Had  the  English  envoy  been  as  well  versed  in 
'  the  higher  as  in  the  lower  arts  of  diplomacy,  he 
would  have  obtained  all  that  he  asked  without 
modification  or  delay.  But,  ignorant  of  the 
straits  to  which  the  duke  was  reduced  for  want 
of  money,  he  began  by  asking  for  what  he  might 
have  commanded,  and  involving  himself  in  ne 
gotiations  where  a  few  firm  words  would  have 
brought  both  father  and  son  to  his  feet.  The 
crown  prince  was  not  slow  to  turn  to  account  the 
advantage  which  the  slow-witted  Englishman  had 
given  him,  and  using  artfully  and  skillfully  the 
name  and  coequal  authority  of  his  father,  pres 
ently  gained  virtual  control  of  the  negotiation, 
which  in  itself  was  little  more  than  a  higgling 
over  details.  Fawcitt  boasts  of  the  perseverance 
with  which  he  has  beat  down  the  German's 
prices,  and  the  persistence  with  which  he  has  re 
sisted  some  of  his  claims.  The  main  object  of 
the  transaction  was  won,  England  got  her  sol 
diers, —  four  thousand  infantry  and  three  hun 
dred  light  dragoons,  —  Brunswick  her  money, 
her  duke  and  minister  their  special  pickings,  and 
the  English  envoy  a  diamond  ring  worth  one 
hundred  pounds  as  a  reward 'for  his  good  offices. 

The  first  division  was  to  start  at  once  for  the 
seat  of  war.  On  examination  by  the  British 
commissioner,  it  was  found  to  contain  too  many 
old  men.  The  duke's  zeal  for  the  king's  service 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  191 

did  not  prevent  him  from  palming  off  upon  him 
men  altogether  unfit  to  bear  arms.  "  The  front 
and  rear,"  wrote  Fawcitt  to  Lord  Suffolk,  "  are 
composed  of  sound  and  strong  men,  but  the  cen 
tre  is  worthless.  It  is  composed  of  raw  recruits, 
who  not  only  are  too  small,  but  also  imperfectly 
grown,  and  in  part  too  young."  Nor  did  the 
trickery  end  here.  This  same  duke,  who  lived 
surrounded  by  expensive  mistresses,  sent  off  his 
soldiers  upon  a  late  spring  voyage  with  uniforms 
unfit  for  service,  and  no  overcoats  or  cloaks.  It 
was  not  till  they  got  to  Portsmouth  that  they  ob 
tained  their  first  supply  of  shoes  and  stockings. 
Their  commander,  Baron  Riedesel,  was  compelled 
to  borrow  five  thousand  pounds  from  the  English 
government  in  order  to  procure  for  his  starving 
and  freezing  men  the  simplest  articles  of  neces 
sity. 

Thus  far  they  had  had  the  rapacity  of  their 
own  sovereign  to  contend  with.  They  now  came 
into  contact  with  the  rapacity  of  English  trades 
men.  When  they  got  to  sea  and  opened  the 
boxes. of  dragoon  shoes,  they  found  them  to  be 
thin  ladies'  shoes,  utterly  unfit  for  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  designed.  Such  are  some 
of  the  fruits  of  that  great  demoralizer  —  war. 
We  need  not  go  far  back  for  the  parallel. 

Towards  the  end  of  May  the  second  division 
was  mustered  into  service.  They  were  nearly  all 


192  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

recruits,  levied  especially  for  service  in  America  ; 
many  of  them,  as  in  the  first,  too  old  or  too 
young,  or  imperfectly  grown  and  too  feeble  to 
carry  a  musket.  But  the  blame  called  forth  by 
the  condition  of  the  first  division  was  not  alto 
gether  vain,  and  the  arms  and  uniforms  were 
good.  The  officers  did  not  escape  without  their 
share  of  suffering.  The  cabins  were  so  small 
that  their  occupants  were  compelled  to  lie  on  one 
another  in  heaps.  The  Bristol  merchants,  who 
had  supplied  the  transports  with  bedding,  had 
made  the  most  of  their  bargain.  The  pillows 
were  five  inches  long  and  seven  broad,  the  size 
of  a  common  pincushion  ;  and  the  mattresses  so 
thin  that  with  a  coarse  woolen  blanket  and  cov 
erlid  they  hardly  weighed  seven  pounds.  The 
food  was  prepared  upon  the  same  honest  scale. 
The  ham  was  worm-eaten,  the  water  dirty,  and 
the  ship's  stores  had  been  ripened  by  lying  in  the 
English  magazines  ever  since  the  Seven  Years' 
War.  Thus  the  powerful  King  of  England  and 
the  petty  sovereigns  of  Germany  leagued  to 
gether  to  buy  and  sell  the  blood  of  the  unpro 
tected  German  peasant. 

Let  us  carry  this  study  a  little  further.  Elated 
with  the  success  of  his  first  negotiation,  Fawcitt 
turned  his  face  towards  Hesse-Cassel.  Germany 
"  was  all  before  him  where  to  choose,"  and  he 
chose,  or  rather  Lord  Suffolk  chose  for  him,  the 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  193 

brilliant  court  of  Hesse-Cassel  for  the  next  scene 
of  his  labors.  The  Duke  of  Hesse-Cassel,  like 
his  brother  of  Brunswick,  felt  no  Christian  scru 
ples,  no  humane  misgivings,  no  paternal  doubts 
about  trafficking  in  the  blood  of  his  subjects. 
Landgrave  Charles  I.  had  set  the  example,  and. 
his  successors  had  followed  it.  He  let  out  his 
soldiers  to  Venice,  and  it  might  have  been  ac 
cepted  as  a  mitigation  of  his  crime  that  it  was  to 
serve  against  the  Turks,  the  deadly  enemies  of 
Christian  civilization.  But  it  was  not  to  the  Ve 
netians  as  the  defenders  of  Christianity  that  he 
let  them,  but  as  the  best  paymasters  in  the  mar 
ket.  From  1687,  when  Charles  I.  sent  one  thou 
sand  men  to  fight  for  the  Venetians,  till  the  end 
of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  Hessians  were  found  in 
one  or  the  other  of  the  contending  armies,  and 
always  among  the  best  disciplined  and  bravest  of 
its  soldiers.  With  the  proceeds  of  their  blood 
Charles  I.  built  barracks  and  churches,  con 
structed  the  water-works  of  the  Weissenstein, 
and  set  up  the  statue  of  Hercules.  His  succes 
sors  followed  close  in  his  footsteps,  holding  at  one 
time  twenty-four  thousand  men  under  arms,  and 
always  commanding  the  highest  prices  for  their 
blood.  Marble  palaces,  galleries  rich  with  paint 
ings  and  statues,  spacious  villas,  and  all  the  lux 
uries  of  the  most  advanced  civilization  bore  wit 
ness  to  the  wealth  of  the  sovereign  ;  their  homes, 

13 


194  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

and  the  boys,  old  men  and  women  doing  the 
work  of  ripe  manhood,  attested  the  oppression 
of  the  subject.  There  was  a  deep-set  melancholy 
on  the  faces  of  the  women.  "  When  we  are 
dead  we  are  done  with  it,"  was  a  common  saying 
with  the  men.  When  a  father  asked  for  his  son, 
whom  the  conscription  had  torn  from  him,  he  was 
sent  to  the  mines.  If  a  mother  besought  that  he 
to  whom  she  had  looked  for  the  support  of  her 
age  might  be  restored  to  her,  she  was  sent  to  the 
workhouse.  Some  of  the  barbarous  punishments 
by  which  soldiers  were  terrified  into  obedience 
were  inflicted  in  the  streets.  "  Never,"  says 
Weber,  in  his  "  Travels  of  a  German  in  Ger 
many,"  "  did  I  see  so  many  poor  wretches  chased 
through  the  streets  as  in  Cassel.  It  is  less  inju 
rious  to  the  health  than  running  the  gauntlet," 
the  officers  told  him  ;  and  well  it  might  be,  for 
that  gauntlet  was  run  through  a  narrow  lane  of 
men,  each  provided  with  a  stout  cane  and  bound 
to  apply  it  with  full  force  to  the  backs  of  the  de 
linquents.  In  cases  of  desertion,  the  greatest  of 
crimes,  the  offender  was  made  to  run  this  gaunt 
let  two  days  in  succession,  and  twelve  times  each 
day.  Can  we  wonder  that  the  terrible  punish 
ment  often  ended  in  death  ? 
The  poet  tells  us  that- 

Ingenuas  didicisse  fidcliter  artes 
Emollit  mores  nee  sinit  esse  feros. 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  195 

I  could  wish  that  this  were  always  true,  but  I 
fear  that  history  will  not  bear  us  out  in  the  be 
lief.  Landgrave  Frederick  II.,  whose  reign  from 
1760  to  1785  covers  the  whole  period  in  which 
we  are  most  interested,  can  hardly  be  regarded 
as  an  illustration  of  the  rule.  His  mixed  char 
acter  will  repay  a  more  attentive  study. 

He  had  inherited  from  his  father  a  territory  of 
one  hundred  and  fifty-six  German  square  miles, 
with  a  population  of  three  hundred  thousand 
souls.  Over  this  population  he  exercised  an  ab 
solute  control,  and  by  his  wealth,  his  connec 
tions,  and  the  favorable  position  of  his  territories, 
he  was  counted  among  the  most  powerful  of  his 
brother  princes.  From  his  ancestors  he  inher 
ited  business  talent,  indiscreet  selfishness,  coarse 
sensuality,  and  obstinate  self-will.  He  had  found 
Protestantism  too  rigorous,  and  became  a  Cath 
olic  in  order  to  enjoy  greater  religious  freedom, 
though  he  was  not  only  indifferent  to  religion, 
but  prided  himself  on  playing  the  part  of  an  il- 
luminato,  a  protector  of  the  arts  and  sciences, 
and  a  correspondent  of  Voltaire.  He  founded 
schools  of  a  higher  order,  and  even  made  some 
humane  laws  ;  but  his  culture  was  all  on  the  sur 
face,  and  his  life  was  defiled  by  an  indecent  lib 
ertinism.  French  manners,  French  literature, 
and,  above  all,  French  licentiousness,  reigned  at 
his  court,  and  to  form  some  idea  of  its  corrupting 


196  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

power  we  have  only  to  remember  that  at  the  be 
ginning  of  his  career  he  was  a  contemporary  of 
Louis  XV.  If  he  spent  freely  upon  churches 
and  museums,  he  spent  more  freely  for  the  grati 
fication  of  his  voluptuousness.  Yet  with  all  this 
love  of  pleasure  and  display,  he  left  at  his  death 
sixty  million  thalers  in  ready  money.  Where 
did  he  get  it  ?  A  skillfully  managed  lottery  fur 
nished  part ;  but  the  traffic  in  soldiers  the  greater 
part. 

For  him  also  the  American  war  was  a  godsend, 
awakening  new  hopes  for  himself,  and,  as  with 
his  brother  princes,  new  zeal  and  grateful  attach 
ment  to  "  the  best  of  kings."  We  have  seen 
how  Fawcitt  had  been  outwitted  in  his  negotia 
tions  with  the  prime  minister  of  Brunswick.  He 
was  still  less  able  to  cope  with  Von  Schlieffen, 
the  prime  minister  of  Hesse-Cassel,  —  a  man  of 
both  military  and  civil  experience,  a  skillful  ne 
gotiator,  profoundly  versed  in  the  practical  study 
of  human  nature,  and  thoroughly  familiar  with 
the  aims  and  wishes  of  his  sovereign.  Fortu 
nately  for  that  sovereign,  his  minister  was  en 
tirely  devoted  to  his  interests. 

The  negotiation  began  by  a  master  stroke, 
which  represented  the  landgrave  as  sensitive  and 
nervous,  and  therefore  in  a  state  of  mind  that  re 
quired  delicate  management.  The  English  en 
voy  bit  eagerly  at  the  bait,  and  made  no  secret  of 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  197 

the  dependence  of  his  sovereign  upon  foreign  aid. 
"  How  many  men  does  he  want  ?  "  was  the  first 
question.  From  ten  thousand  to  twelve  thou 
sand,  answered  Fawcitt,  little  dreaming  that  the 
small  state  could  furnish  so  many.  He  was  told 
that  the  Hessian  troops  were  on  the  best  footing, 
and  the  king  could  have  all  that  he  asked  for. 
Fawcitt  was  very  happy,  for  the  main  object  of 
his  mission  seemed  secure.  The  troops  promised, 
all  the  rest  was  merely  a  discussion  of  details. 
But  in  the  skillful  diplomacy  of  his  opponent 
these  details  became  concessions,  cunningly  inter 
woven,  and  leading  by  subtle  interpretations  from 
one  admission  to  another.  First  came  a  claim 
for  hospital  expenses  during  the  last  war,  —  a 
claim  the  envoy  had  never  heard  of  before,  and 
concerning  which  he  was  therefore  obliged  to 
write  home  for  instructions. 

Meanwhile  he  urged  on  the  preparation  of  the 
contract,  which,  to  the  wonder  of  diplomatists 
and  the  disgust  of  thoughtful  Englishmen,  took 
the  form,  not  of  a  convention  for  hiring  soldiers, 
as  in  the  case  of  Brunswick,  but  of  a  treaty  on 
equal  terms  between  the  mistress  of  the  seas  and 
a  petty  German  landgrave,  as  high  contracting 
powers.  We  need  not,  however,  look  far  for  the 
cause  of  the  unwonted  pliability  of  the  English 
government.  The  margrave  had  money,  and 
could  wait.  The  king  had  no  troops,  and  could 
not  wait. 


198  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

I   will  not  follow  the  details  of  this  necrotia- 

O 

tion  any  further.  Both  parties  obtained  their 
object.  England  got  the  men  ;  the  landgrave 
got  his  money.  The  time  for  the  embarkation 
was  fixed,  and  when  it  came,  the  first  division 
of  8397  was  mustered  into  the  English  service 
by  Fawcitt,  who  seemed  at  a  loss  for  words  to  ex 
press  his  admiration  of  their  soldierly  appearance. 
On  the  12th  of  August,  1776,  they  entered  New 
York  Bay.  On  the  27th  they  took  a  brilliant 
part,  under  De  Heister,  in  the  battle  of  Long 
Island.  A  gale  of  wind,  a  persistent  calm,  any 
of  the  common  chances  of  the  ocean,  and  they 
would  have  been  too  late,  and  Howe  would  not 
have  dared  to  fight  the  battle  which  won  him  his 
knighthood  ;  Washington  would  have  had  time 
to  strengthen  his  works  on  both  islands ;  Greene, 
who  of  all  the  American  officers  was  the  only  one 
perfectly  familiar  with  the  ground,  would  have 
recovered  sufficiently  from  his  untimely  fever  to 
resume  his  command,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  the 
campaign  of  1776  would  have  been  altered.  So 
much,  in  great  enterprises,  often  depends  upon 
a  happy  concurrence  of  incidents.  Henceforth 
let  it  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  every  battle  of 
the  war  of  independence,  hired  men  of  Germany 
play  an  important  part. 

On  the   2d  of  June  the  second  division  was 
mustered  into  service.     On  the  18th  of  October 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

it  landed  at  New  Rochelle.  It  consisted  of 
men,  not  the  trained  men  of  well-knit  sinews  whox 
formed  the  first  division,  but  chiefly  young  men 
'of  seventeen  or  eighteen,  who  had  been  raised  to 
serve  in  America.  As  general  of  division  we 
find  Knyphausen,  whose  name  soon  became  famil 
iar  to  both  armies.  Among  the  colonels  of  the 
first  division  we  find  Rahl,  who  commanded  at 
Trenton  when  Washington  came  upon  it  by  sur 
prise  in  the  cold  gray  of  a  morning  after  Christ 
mas  ;  and  Donop,  who  fell  mortally  wounded,  as 
he  led  his  men  to  the  attack  of  Redbank,  and 
died  exclaiming,  "  I  die  the  victim  of  my  own 
ambition  and  the  avarice  of  my  sovereign."  Did 
those  bitter  words  ever  reach  the  ears  of  that 
sovereign?  Not  if  we  may  judge  by  the  cold, 
business-like  method  with  which  he  bargained 
that  three  wounded  men  should  count  as  one 
killed,  and  one  killed  as  one  newly  levied,  or 
thirty  crowns  banco. 

But  this  second  division  was  not  so  easily 
raised  as  the  first;  The  alarm  had  spread  rap 
idly  among  a  people  still  suffering  from  the 
wounds  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  The  only 
refuge  was  desertion,  and  although  the  front 
iers  were  closely  guarded,  deserters  passed  daily 
into  the  neighboring  territories,  where,  from  the 
people  at  least,  they  found  a  ready  reception. 
To  check  this  the  king,  as  Elector  of  Hanover, 


200  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

put  forth  all  his  authority  to  restore  these  poor 
wretches  to  their  sovereign  ;  and  the  sovereign, 
to  prove  his  paternal  tenderness,  reduced  the  war 
taxes  by  half;  taking  good  care  to  secure  for  him 
self  an  ample  compensation  from  England.  "The 
treasury,"  to  borrow  the  energetic  language  of  a 
German  historian,  "  was  filled  with  blood  and 
tears."  Yet  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  both  of 
the  king  and  the  landgrave,  the  deserti-on  con 
tinued;  the  difficulty  of  finding  recruits  increased ; 
native  Plessians  able  to  bear  arms  disappeared 
from  the  towns  and  fields  ;  and  it  was  only  by 
stealing  men  wherever  they  could  be  found  that 
the  landgrave  could  fulfill  his  promises.  Mean 
while  he  went  to  Italy  to  enjoy  his  money  and 
form  new  plans  of  embellishment. 

From  Cassel  Fawcitt  hastened  to  Hanau, 
where  he  found  the  Crown  Prince  of  Hesse-Cas- 
sel,  and,  following  up  his  negotiations,  had  a  new 
convention  all  ready  in  the  course  of  the  first 
twenty-four  hours.  He  was  delighted  with  the 
"impetuous  zeal"  of  the  prince.  But  the  diffi 
culty  of  his  task  was  increasing  ;  not  from  any 
hesitation  on  the  part  of  the  sovereign,  who 
thought  only  of  his  gains, but  because  the  subject 
had  conceived  a  strong  aversion  for  service  be 
yond  the  sea.  Excellent  soldiers  as  the  Germans 
were,  they  shrank  with  repugnance  and  terror 
from  a  voyage  across  the  Atlantic.  Those  of 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  201 

my  readers  who  have  walked  through  a  steerage 
crowded  with  emigrants  will  readily  conceive 
what  the  sufferings  of  those  poor  soldiers  must 
have  been,  badly  fed,  badly  lodged,  and  worse 
than  crowded.  Draw  the  picture  as  you  may, 
you  cannot  color  it  too  highly.  Little  thought 
did  either  the  king  or  the  prince  take  of  this. 
Each  had  his  immediate  object,  and  cared  little 
for  anything  besides. 

The  Waldeckers  came  next ;  and  Fawcitt  press 
ing  them  on  through  new  difficulties,  they  were 
ready  in  November  to  take  a  decided  part  in  the 
assault  of  Fort  Washington.  For  they  fought 
gallantly,  it  will  be  remembered,  on  the  north 
side,  where  both  attack  and  defense  were  blood 
iest  and  hottest.  German  writers  tell  us  how  the 
wounded  cursed  and  swore,  bewailing  their  lot ; 
but  if  the  prince  was  to  be  trusted,  they  only 
"  longed  for  an  opportunity  to  sacrifice  them 
selves  for  the  best  of  kings." 

The  avarice  of  the  German  princes  grew  with 
success.  All  longed  to  come  in  for  a  share  of  this 
abundant  harvest.  Bavaria  asked  to  put  in  her 
little  sickle,  but  was  refused.  England  might 
have  raised  her  tone,  for  every  applicant  wrote  as 
if  all  Germany  were  at  her  feet.  But  in  truth 
the  aversion  to  the  service  grew  daily,  and  the 
difficulty  of  conveying  troops  to  the  place  of  mus 
ter  caused  serious  embarrassments,  which  if  En- 


202  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

gland  had  been  less  in  need  might  have  led  to 
the  renunciation  of  the  contract.  But  as  has  been 
already  said,  England  wanted  men  and  the  princes 
wanted  money,  and  thus  the  evil  work  went  on, 
till  there  were  no  longer  men  to  be  bought  or  stolen. 

There  is  a  painful  monotony  in  this  story  of  in 
humanity  and  crime,  of  the  avarice  of  money  and 
the  avarice  of  power.  It  is  common  to  speak  of 
George  III.  as  a  man  of  a  narrow  mind  but  of 
an  excellent  heart ;  a  moral  king  while  so  many 
of  his  contemporary  kings  disgraced  the  thrones 
on  which  they  sat.  This  is  too  light  a  view  of 
so  grave  a  subject.  Superiority  of  power  carries 
with  it  superiority  of  moral  obligation,  and  the 
man  from  whose  will  good  or  evil  flows,  compel 
ling  millions  to  go  with  it,  must  be  held  to  a 
sterner  reckoning  than  his  fellow-men.  Let  us 
not  pass  lightly  over  this  grave  subject.  The 
balancing  of  responsibilities,  the  just  meting  out 
of  judgment  to  the  strong  and  to  the  weak,  is  one 
of  the  most  serious  duties  of  the  historian.  The 
man  who  accepts  a  post  of  responsibility  is  bound 
to  do  whatever  this  responsibility  imposes.  Weigh 
the  British  king  in  this  balance  and  grievously 
will  he  be  found  wanting. 

And  what  shall  we  say  of  the  German  princes  ? 
Their  lives  speak  for  them.  The  pervading  char 
acter  of  their  relations  to  their  subjects  was  cold- 
hearted  selfishness,  a  wanton  sacrifice  of  the  labor 


GERMAN  MER  C EN  ARIES.  203 

and  lives  of  their  subjects  to  their  own  caprice 
and  pleasure.  Compare  their  spacious  palaces 
with  the  comfortless  cottages  of  the  peasant ;  their 
sumptuous  tables,  covered  with  the  delicate  in 
ventions  of  French  cookery,  with  the  coarse 
bread,  almost  the  peasant's  only  meal ;  see  their 
splendid  theatres,  maintained  by  taxes  that  rob 
the  laborer  of  half  the  fruits  of  his  toil ;  see  how 
desolate  the  fields  look,  how  deserted  the  high 
ways,  how  silent  the  streets  ;  see  what  sadness 
sits  upon  the  brows  of  the  women,  what  despair 
on  the  faces  of  the  men  ;  and  think  what  manner 
of  man  he  must  be  who  reigns  over  subjects  like 
these ! 

It  has  been  said  that  the  convention  with  the 
crown  prince  at  Hanau  was  discussed  and  signed 
in  twenty-four  hours.  The  Prince  of  Waldeck 
followed,  and  soon  the  name  of  Waldeckers  — 
first  written  in  blood  on  the  northern  ridge  of 
Fort  Washington  —  became  a  name  of  fear  and 
hatred  to  Americans.  It  would  be  useless  — 
disgusting,  rather  —  to  dwell  upon  the  monoto 
nous  record  of  this  buying  and  selling  of  human 
blood.  I  will  give  a  few  incidents  only  to  com 
plete  the  picture. 

A  spirit  of  rivalry  had  grown  up  among  these 
dukes  and  landgraves  and  princes,  such  rivalry 
as  only  avarice  could  awaken.  They  crowded 
around  Fawcitt,  and,  while  protesting  that  devo- 


204  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

tion  to  the  majesty  of  England  was  their  only 
motive,  took  good  care  to  drive  keen  bargains  and 
insist  upon  the  uttermost  farthing.  They  in 
trigued  against  each  other  in-  all  the  tortuous 
ways  familiar  to  petty  princes,  bringing  even  re 
ligion  to  their  aid,  reminding  Fawcitt  how  dan 
gerous  an  element  so  large  a  proportion  of  Cath 
olics  would  be  in  an  English  army.  England 
wanted  an  army  of  twenty  thousand  men,  with 
which  she  hoped  to  bring  the  war  to  a  close  in 
the  course  of  another  year  ;  for  till  the  Christmas 
of  1776  the  campaign  had  gone  all  in.  her  favor, 
and  her  hired  troops  had  borne  themselves  bravely. 
She  might  have  spoken  in  a  more  commanding 
tone.  But  the  surprise  of  Trenton  had  thrown 
nearly  nine  hundred  of  these  valiant  mercenaries 
into  the  hands  of  the  Americans  and  changed  the 
whole  aspect  of  the  war.  New  troops  were  more 
needed  than  ever.  She  was  again  obliged  to  ask 
urgently  and  accept  the  hardest  conditions. 

The  American  service  was  now  better  under 
stood,  but  not  better  liked.  The  Margrave  of 
Anspach  encountered  serious  obstacles  in  sending 
his  troops  to  the  place  of  embarkation.  At  Och- 
senfurt  they  revolted  and  refused  to  embark.  A 
skillful  leader  might  have  opposed  a  formidable 
resistance,  but  their  officers  were  not  with  them 
in  heart,  and  information  of  the  untoward  event 
was  immediately  sent  to  the  margrave.  He  in- 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  205 

stantly  mounted  his  horse,  not  stopping  long 
enough  to  take  a  change  of  linen  or  even  his 
watch,  and,  followed  by  only  two  or  three  at 
tendants,  rode  at  full  speed  to  the  scene  of  the 
revolt.  At  the  sight  of  their  master  the  hearts 
of  these  bold  men,  so  daring  in  the  face  of  the  en 
emy,  misgave  them,  and  they  penitently  returned 
to  their  allegiance. 

Other  difficulties  awaited  other  corps  on  their 
march.  The  electors  of  Mainz  and  Trier  stopped 
them  as  they  passed  through  their  territories, 
and  claimed  some  of  them  as  deserters.  At  Cob- 
lentz  seventeen  Hessians  were  taken  out  of  the 
boats  at  the  suggestion  of  the  imperial  minister, 
Metternich.  Another  element  of  dissension  was 
introduced,  and  deep  menaces  were  uttered  for 
the  insult  to  the  Hessian  flag.  But  this,  also, 
was  presently  forgotten ;  the  work  went  on,  and 
the  new  band  of  mercenaries  reached  New  York 
in  safety. 

Among  the  mistakes  of  the  English  govern 
ment,  the  greatest,  perhaps,  of  all  was  the  failure 
to  understand  the  spirit  and  resources  of  the  col 
onies,  and  the  consequent  prolongation  of  the 
war.  The  surprise  of  Trenton  was,  both  by  the 
actual  loss  of  men  and  the  still  more  fatal  loss  of 
prestige,  a  heavy  blow.  The  privation  of  such 
troops  under  such  circumstances  imposed  the 
necessity  of  immediate  reinforcements.  The  only 


206  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

market  in  which  they  could  be  found  was  Ger 
many,  and  that  market  was  nearly  drained.  But 
as  long  as  a  man  was  to  be  had,  his  sovereign 
was  eager  to  sell  him  and  England  to  buy. 

As  early  as  December,  1776,  the  Duke  of  Wiir- 
temberg  had  offered  four  thousand  men,  and 
Fawcitt  had  been  instructed  to  enter  into  negoti 
ations  with  him.  But  upon  a  closer  examination 
it  was  found  that  he  was  bankrupt.  He  had  no 
arras  and  no  uniforms.  To  prevent  the  men  from 
deserting  they  were  kept  without  pay.  The 
officers'  tents  had  been  cut  up  to  eke  out  the  dec 
orations  of  the  duke's  rural  festivals.  The  pros 
pect  was  gloomy.  Sir  Joseph  Yorke  was  called 
into  council,  but  he  had  no  new  market  to  recom 
mend.  Saxe-Gotha  and  Darmstadt  might  furnish 
a  few.  The  Prince  of  Anhalt-Zerbst  was  willing 
to  furnish  two  battalions.  He  was  a  brother  of 
Catherine  II.,  and  a  hearty  hater  of  the  great 
Frederick.  His  territories  were  wretchedly  poor. 
His  eagerness  to  get  money  embarrassed  his  ne 
gotiations,  which  were  broken  off  by  Suffolk,  but 
resumed  in  the  autumn  of  1777  on  the  recom 
mendation  of  Sir  Joseph  Yorke.  But  England 
wanted  more  men.  Then  adventurers  began  to 
come  forward  with  propositions  more  or  less  fea 
sible,  but  all  aiming  at  the  fathomless  purse  of 
England.  A  Baron  Eichberg  offered  to  open  a 
recruiting  office  in  Minorca ;  then  a  regiment  of 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  207 

Sclavonians,  who  were  also  good  sailors,  and  after 
the  war  were  to  found  a  colony  for  holding  the 
Americans  in  check.  The  offer  was  not  accepted. 
Other  offers  were  made,  but  by  impoverished 
men,  who,  when  the  time  came,  failed  to  meet 
their  engagements.  And  thus  was  it  till  the  end 
of  the  war  ;  the  only  contracts  that  held  were  the 
first  six  :  the  contracts,  namely,  with  Brunswick, 
Cassel,  Hanau,  Waldeck,  Anspach,  and  Zerbst. 
The  history  of  these  six  contracts  covers  the  whole 
ground  to  the  spring  of  1777,  when  the  difficulty 
of  finding  recruits  increased.  All  that  follows  is 
in  the  main  but  a  repetition  of  the  original  nego 
tiations.  For  a  year  the  disgraceful  work  pros 
pered.  But  early  in  1777  the  market  was  nearly 
drained,  and  though  new  engagements  continued 
to  be  made,  they  were  seldom  fulfilled.  The 
story  was  still  sad  and  humiliating  ;  I  shall  follow 
its  details  no  further.1  Here  I  must  pause  a  mo 
ment  to  call  attention  to  the  heartless  betrayal  of 
his  own  soldiers  by  the  Duke  of  Brunswick.  Two 
thousand  of  these  wretches  had  been  made  pris 
oners  at  Saratoga  ;  and  the  duke,  fearing  that  to 
exchange  them  would  interfere  with  his  profit  and 
diffuse  a  general  dissatisfaction  with  the  service, 
when  so  many  witnesses  against  it  were  scattered 

1  The  reader  who  wishes  to  study  this  subject  more  fully 
should  read  Der  Soldatenhandel  deutscher  Fiirsten  nach  Amerika 
(1775  bis  1783),  von  Friedrich  Kapp,  Berlin,  1864. 


208  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

through  the  country,  urged  the  English  govern 
ment  to  delay  their  exchange  till  the  war  was 
ended. 

Frederick  of  Prussia  and  the  emperor  were  op 
posed  to  the  selling  of  men  for  foreign  service  ; 
not  from  any  feeling  for  the  misery  which  it 
caused,  but  because  their  own  political  horizon 
was  overcast  and  they  might  soon  need  them  for 
their  own  service.  It  has  been  said  that  Fred 
erick  was  moved  by  sentiments  of  humanity,  and 
that  with  a  bitter  practical  satire  he  imposed  the 
same  tax  upon  the  passage  of  these  men  through 
his  territories  that  he  had  been  accustomed  to  im 
pose  upon  cattle.  But  we  have  very  little  reason 
to  count  humanity  among  Frederick's  virtues. 
He  hated  England  for  her  desertion  of  him  when 
Bute  became  minister  and  Chatham  was  forced 
to  retire.  In  November,  1777,  he  refused  the 
Anspachers  and  Hammers  a  passage  through  his 
territories  ;  sorely  embarrassing  the  German  sov 
ereigns  and  their  English  customers.  They  knew 
not  which  way  to  turn.  If  they  should  attempt 
to  pass  through  Holland  and  the  Netherlands,  the 
discontented  and  ill-provided  men  would  desert 
by  hundreds.  When  at  last  the  march  began, 
three  hundred  aud  thirty-four  men  did  desert  in 
ten  days.  The  disgraceful  drama  closed  in  1778 
with  the  embarkation  of  the  levies  of  the  Prince 
of  Zerbst.  And  thus  Frederick  was  our  involun 
tary  ally. 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  209 

There  was  another  ordeal  to  pass  before  the 
bargain  was  brought  to  a  close.  Would  Parlia 
ment  approve  this  degradation  ?  The  debates 
were  long  and  bitter,  and  brought  out  the  think 
ers  and  orators  of  both  houses.  In  the  Commons, 
Burke  characterized  the  bargain  as  shameful  and 
dear.  In  the  Lords,  Camden  branded  it  as  a  sale 
of  cattle  for  the  shambles.  Even  the  butcher  of 
Culloden  condemned  it  as  an  attempt  to  suppress 
constitutional  liberty  in  America.  But  the  min 
istry  prevailed  by  large  majorities  in  both  houses. 
England  had  not  yet  opened  her  eyes  to  the  in 
humanity  and  bad  statesmanship  of  the  war. 

But  England  was  not  alone.  The  moral  sense 
of  Europe  had  not  yet  awakened.  The  old  spirit 
of  feudalism  had  not  ypt  lost  its  hold  upon  the 
nobles  nor  upon  the  people.  The  noble  still  felt 
that  the  commoner  was  infinitely  below  him. 
The  commoner  and  day-laborer  could  not  but  be 
lieve  that  the  noble  was  really  far  above  them. 
A  few  voices  were  raised  in  the  defense  of  human 
rights.  The  most  powerful  of  these  in  France 
was  the  voice  of  Mirabeau,  who,  though  a  noble 
himself,  had  also  been  the  victim  of  tyranny. 
And  in  Germany  it  is  pleasant  to  find  Schiller 
on  the  side  of  humanity,  stigmatizing  the  trade  in 
men  in  his  u  Kabale  und  Liebe  ;  "  while  the  great 
Kant  went  still  further,  and  embraced  the  cause 
of  the  American  colonists  with  all  the  energy  of 

14 


210  GERMAN  MERCENARIES. 

his  vast  intellect.  Klopstock  and  Lessing  spoke 
in  low  tones,  and  we  listen  in  vain  for  the  voice 
of  Goethe. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  with  perfect  accuracy 
the  numbers  of  the  Germans  employed  by  En 
gland  in  this  fatal  war.  The  English  archives 
contain  one  part  of  the  story,  and  that  the  most 
important  —  the  numbers  actually  mustered  into 
service.  But  the  various  German  archives,  which 
contain  the  record  of  all  who  were  put  on  the 
rolls,  are  not  all  accessible  to  the  historical  in 
quirer.  This  part  of  the  subject  has  been  care 
fully  studied  by  Schlozer,  and  the  result  compared 
by  Mr.  Kapp  with  the  statements  in  the  English 
state  paper  office.  Mr.  Kapp's  figures  are  as  fol 
lows  :  — 

No.  Men  No.  returned 

furnished.  home. 

Brunswick         ....           5,723  2,708 

Hesse-Cassel         .         .         .         .     16,992  10,492 

Hesse-Hanau     .....           2,422  1,441 

Waldeck 1,225  505 

Anspach             .                                        1,644  1,183 

Anhalt-Zerbst       .                  .         .       1,160  984 


Total        .         ...         .         .         29,166  17,313 

Thus  the  total  loss  was  11,853. 

It  is  difficult  to  establish  with  certainty  the 
sums  which  this  army  of  foreigners  took  from  the 
tax-payers  of  England.  Strongly  supported  as 
they  were  in  Parliament,  ministers  did  not  dare 


GERMAN  MERCENARIES.  211 

to  tell  the  whole  story  openly,  but  put  many 
things  under  false  titles.  They  did  not  dare 
frankly  to  say,  Every  man  that  is  killed  puts  so 
many  thalers  into  the  sovereign's  pocket,  every 
three  wounded  men  count  for  one  dead  man. 
Even  the  Parliament  of  Lord  North  might  have 
shrunk  from  the  contemplation  of  figures  thus 
stained  with  tears  and  blood.  As  near  as  it  can 
be  established  by  a  careful  comparison  of  the 
English  authorities,  the  sums  paid  under  various 
names  by  the  English  treasury  amounted  in  round 
numbers  to  seven  million  pounds  sterling,  or,  at 
the  present  standard,  fourteen  million  pounds 
sterling.  Had  these  fourteen  millions  been  used 
for  the  good  of  the  people  by  whose  sweat  and 
blood  they  were  won,  we  might  still  find  some 
grounds  for  consolation  in  the  reflection  that  the 
good  thus  done  to  one  would,  by  a  common  law 
of  humanity,  sooner  or  later  extend  to  all.  But 
this  fruit  of  the  blood  of  the  people  went  to 
satisfy  the  vain  ambitions  of  display  and  the  un 
bounded  sensuality  of  the  sovereign.  Men  whose 
names  might  have  stood  high  in  the  annals  of  war, 
if  they  had  fought  for  their  country,  are  known 
in  history  as  fighters  for  hire. 


HOME  USE 

CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 
MAIN  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 
1 -month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 
6-month  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing  books 

to  Circulation  Desk. 
Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior 

to  due  date. 

ALL  BOOKS  ARE  SUBJECT  TO  RECALL  7  DAYS 
AFTER  DATE  CHECKED  OUT. 

REG.  cm. 


LD21 — A-40m-8,'75 
(S7737L) 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


37332 


